A Study of the Relationship Between the Oral Microbiome and Caries Status of Young Twins

Host genetics and environmental factors have a significant impact on the oral microbiome. However, such external factors influencing the oral microbiome have yet to be investigated thoroughly using meta-omics approaches. Our study focuses on determining the links between early environment (shared and nonshared), genetics, epigenetics, and caries development. Our goals include characterizing the species and strains of dental plaque collected from twin pairs during a longitudinal study, characterizing the functional component of these samples with metagenomics and metatranscriptomics sequencing, and determining the link between host genetics and caries development—particularly in caries concordant and discordant twins.