BACTERIOCIN PRODUCTION BY FUSOBACTERIUM ISOLATES RECOVERED FROM THE ORAL CAVITY OF HUMAN-SUBJECTS WITH AND WITHOUT PERIODONTAL-DISEASE AND OF MARMOSETS

Bacteriocin production has been studied in very few anaerobic bacteria , and no report is available for Fusobacterium species. In the present study a total of 167 Fusobacterium isolates were tested for bacterioc in production: 70 isolates were obtained from the oral cavity of patie nts with periodontal disease, 47 were recovered from healthy oral site s of human subjects and 50 from the oral cavity of Callithrix penicill ata. Autoantagonism and isoantagonism were observed when the bacterioc in-producing isolates were tested against themselves. Heteroantagonism was detected by testing the Fusobacterium isolates against 14 referen ce strains and 2 strains of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans from our laboratory collection. The auto-, iso- and heteroantagonism phenom ena observed in this comparative study suggest a possible ecological r ole for this (these) antagonistic substance(s) in the oral environment .