Cloning, Expression And Functional Study Of Streptococcus Mutans Glucan-binding Protein D

Dental caries is one of the most common bacterial infections in human beings. Streptococcus mutans has shown to be the causative agent of this disease. Research into the etiology of dental caries and caries prevention established the key role of S. mutans cariogenic factors in caries occurrence and progression. The main virulence factors associated with cariogenicity include adhesion, acidogenicity, and acid tolerance. Among them, glucan-mediatd adhesion and accumulation are strongly implicated as a fundamental molecular pathogenesis. This accumulation may occur through the binding of glucan to S. mutans glucan-binding proteins (GBPs). Until now, four GBPs have been identified in S. mutans. Quite a number of studies on glucan-binding protein A, B and C indicated their functions related to biofilm formation, virulence of S. mutans, bacteria accumulation and aggregation, as well as the immunogenic properties on caries vaccine. GbpD is discovered in 2002, after the completion of S. mutans genome sequencing, by searching the genome with the "A" repeats which were characterized in the glucan-binding regions of S. mutans glucosyltransferases (GTFs) and GbpA. It has glucan-binding domain at amino terminus region and lipase domain at carboxyl terminus region. However, the role of GbpD in cariogenicity is largely...