Genetic variants in taste genes play a role in oral microbial composition and severe early childhood caries

Vivianne Cruz de Jesus; Betty-Anne Mittermuller; Pingzhao Hu; Robert J Schroth; Prashen Chelikani

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105489

Genetic variants in taste genes play a role in oral microbial composition and severe early childhood caries

iScience. 2022 Nov 9;25(12):105489. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105489. eCollection 2022 Dec 22.

Authors

Vivianne Cruz de Jesus^{1

2}, Betty-Anne Mittermuller^{1

2

3}, Pingzhao Hu^{2

4

5}, Robert J Schroth^{1

2

3

6}, Prashen Chelikani^{1

2

4

7}

Affiliations

¹ Manitoba Chemosensory Biology Research Group, Department of Oral Biology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
² Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
³ Department of Preventive Dental Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
⁷ Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

Abstract

Severe early childhood caries (S-ECC) is a multifactorial disease with strong evidence of genetic inheritance. Previous studies suggest that variants in taste genes are associated with dental caries due to the role of taste proteins in mediating taste preferences, oral innate immunity, and important host-microbial interactions. However, few taste genes have been investigated in caries studies. Therefore, the associations of genetic variants in sweet, bitter, umami, salt, sour, carbonation, and fat taste-related genes with S-ECC and plaque microbial composition (16S and ITS1 rRNA sequencing) were evaluated. The results showed that sixteen variants in seven taste genes (SCNN1D, CA6, TAS2R3, OTOP1, TAS2R5, TAS2R60, and TAS2R4) were associated with S-ECC. Twenty-one variants in twelve taste genes were correlated with relative abundances of bacteria or fungi. These results suggest that S-ECC risk and composition of the plaque microbiome can be partially influenced by genetic variants in genes related to taste sensation.

Keywords: Dentistry; Human genetics; Microbiome.