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FIG. 1. Spatiotemporal model of oral bacterial colonization, showing recognition of salivary pellicle receptors by early colonizing bacteria and coaggregations between early colonizers, fusobacteria, and late colonizers of the tooth surface. Each coaggregation depicted is known to occur in a pairwise test. Collectively, these interactions are proposed to represent development of dental plaque and are redrawn from Kolenbrander and London (79). Starting at the bottom, primary colonizers bind via adhesins (round-tipped black line symbols) to complementary salivary receptors (blue-green vertical round-topped columns) in the acquired pellicle coating the tooth surface. Secondary colonizers bind to previously bound bacteria. Sequential binding results in the appearance of nascent surfaces that bridge with the next coaggregating partner cell. Several kinds of coaggregations are shown as complementary sets of symbols of different shapes. One set is depicted in the box at the top. Proposed adhesins (symbols with a stem) represent cell surface components that are heat inactivated (cell suspension heated to 85°C for 30 min) and protease sensitive; their complementary receptors (symbols without a stem) are unaffected by heat or protease. Identical symbols represent components that are functionally similar but may not be structurally identical. Rectangular symbols represent lactose-inhibitable coaggregations. Other symbols represent components that have no known inhibitor. The bacterial strains shown are Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Actinomyces israelii, Actinomyces naeslundii, Capnocytophaga gingivalis, Capnocytophaga ochracea, Capnocytophaga sputigena, Eikenella corrodens, Eubacterium spp., Fusobacterium nucleatum, Haemophilus parainfluenzae, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella denticola, Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella loescheii, Propionibacterium acnes, Selenomonas flueggei, Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus mitis, Streptococcus oralis, Streptococcus sanguis, Treponema spp., and Veillonella atypica.

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