The effect of blood on Fusobacterium nucleatum

Fusobacterium nucleatum is a Gram-negative oral bacterial species associated with periodontal disease progression. As periodontal disease progresses, it is known F. nucleatum coaggregated with blood is frequently detected in the gingival crevice. However, it is largely unknown whether these interactions between F. nucleatum and blood induce a particular genetic response. We tested the cultures of F. nucleatum ATCC 25586 with or without blood in a semi-defined growth medium by microarray analysis and found 14 genes that were affected after only about 4hr. of adhered blood. Then, we selected 7 genes that changed significantly and tested these genes via real-time RT-PCR to confirm the validity of the microarray results. As a result, one amino sugar-binding protein on the membrane of F. nucleatum was especially expressed high via both microarray and real-time RT-PCR. Based upon these data, it appears that the protein on the F. nucleatum membrane binds and transfers the amino sugar only under blood conditions. This study aims to determine the effect of blood on the gene expression profiling of F. nucreatum. The study contains 2 separate experiments that both measure the cultures without or with blood. The samples with blood contain 9% and 33% blood.