A "superorganism" with unusual strength and resilience can be formed when two organisms join together. These groupings are very much part of the here and now, even if it sounds like science fiction.
Found in the saliva of toddlers with tooth decay, they can colonize teeth. The research team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine found that they were stickier, more resistant to antibiotics, and more difficult to remove from teeth.
The team reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the assemblages suddenly sprouted "limbs" that propel them to "walk" and "leap" to quickly spread on the tooth surface.
The discovery was made while looking at saliva samples from toddlers who develop aggressive tooth decay. "After looking under the microscope, we could see that the organisms were forming a 'walking-like' and 'leaping-like' movement." They have a lot of things that can be accomplished on their own. It's almost like a new type of organisms.
Better or worse, they're better together.
In the past, the lab has looked at the dental plaque as a cause of tooth decay in children. Caries are caused by sugars in the diet that cause dental plaque to build up.
A new set of discoveries came about when a scientist used a microscope to see the behavior of living organisms. The technique opens new possibilities to investigate the dynamics of complex biological processes according to Ren, a first author on the paper.
Ren, Koo, and colleagues were curious about how the groupings would behave once attached to a tooth. Real-time live microscopy was used to observe the process of attachment.
The creation of a laboratory system to recreate the formation of these assemblages was done by them. The platform made it possible for the researchers to watch the groupings come together and analyze the structure of the results. A glue-like material was found in the structure with clusters ofbacteria attached to a network of yeast and hyphae.
Ren says that the team tested the properties of the cross-kingdom assemblages after they had colonized the tooth surface.
The researchers said that their mobility was the most intriguing characteristic. Ren says they displayed "leaping-like" and "walking-like" motions.
There are two non-motile species in the current study. "Likebacteria hitchhiking on the fungi", the assemblages used the hyphae to anchor on the surface and then propel the whole superorganism forward.
The researchers found that the groupings were moving quickly. The team measured the speed of fibroblasts, a type of cell in the human body, on the tooth-like surface. Within the first few hours of growth, the scientists were able to see more than 100 microns across the surface. "That is more than 200 times their own body length, making them even better than most other animals," says Ren. A tree frog can leap forward 50 times and a grasshopper 20 times.
The researchers say that the ability to move as they grow allows them to quickly colonize and spread. The research team found more extensive tooth decay when they allowed the assemblages to attach to and grow on real human teeth in a lab model.
Treatments for disease and biology.
It's possible to prevent childhood tooth decay if you target them early on. If you disrupt or block the binding before it arrives on the tooth it could be a preventative strategy.
The researchers say that the new findings may be applicable in other areas of biology. Aggregated organisms found in other biological fluids may increase surface colonization and growth to cause diseases.
"We saw that these two distinct organisms together as a new entity that gave each one more benefits and functions that single cells did not have on their own." The team notes that the findings could shed light on the evolution of mutualism and multicellularity that enhances the survival and growth of single organisms.
Knut Drescher is a co-corresponding author on the paper. Nobody would have predicted this. By keeping an open mind, Zhi stumbled upon this.
More information: Zhi Ren et al, Interkingdom assemblages in human saliva display group-level surface mobility and disease-promoting emergent functions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209699119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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