oral bacteria create a ‘fingerprint’ in your mouth
DESCRIPTION
Genes affect a lot of aspects about our appearance: the slant of our noses, the curvature of our eyes, the thickness of our lips, the prominence of our dimples and the length of our ears. Genes, even though few people know, can also determine internal characteristics. For example, Purnima Kumar, associate professor of periodontology at The Ohio State University, authored a study discovering that the composition of bacteria in a mouth, especially the composition under the gums, can accurately predict a person’s ethnicity. The scientists started by first identifying 400 different species of microbes in the mouths of 100 study participants, belong to four ethnic groups: non-Hispanic blacks, whites, Chinese and Latinos. Only 2 percent of the 400 species appeared in everybody’s mouth. 8 percent appeared in 90 percent of the participants. The ones that appeared in most people’s mouths however varied in concentration according to ethnicity. When the scientists trained a machine to classify the assortment of microbes according to ethnicity, it was able to predict an individual’s ethnicity with 62% accuracy. The machine identified African Americans accurately 100 percent of the time. This is the first time ethnicity has been shown to hugely determine what we carry in our mouths. The finding can help explain why certain groups are more susceptible to certain conditions (for example, how African Americans and Latinos are more susceptible than others to develop gum disease). This confirms that dental advice won’t always apply universally, and that the field should start having a more individualized approach. Medicine has also been shown to vary in effectiveness according to genes. It looks like genes determine a lot more than most of us expect.TRANSCRIPT
