A picture of bacteria covering the human tongue

Thanks to the new fluorescent imaging technique, the US scientific team found a complex distribution of bacteria on the tongue.

"Bacteria on the tongue are not randomly distributed. They are like an organ in the human body," said Gary Borisy, an expert at Harvard's School of Dentistry. The new study appears in the journal Cell Reports on March 24.

The bacteria on the human tongue are not randomly distributed.(Photo: Science News).

The image above shows a biofilm of bacteria taken from the human tongue. To achieve this image, Borisy and his colleagues developed a new fluorescent photography technique called CLASI-FISH .

The epithelium of the central gray constituent, surrounded by a variety of bacteria such as Actinomyces (red) occupying the space close to the center, Streptococcus (green) distributed into clusters on the outside and streaks in inside. Other types of bacteria such as Rothia (blue), Neisseria (yellow), Veillonella (red purple) are arranged in clusters and streaks to show the spreading spread from the central region.

In the study, the researchers analyzed samples from 21 healthy people and identified 17 common bacteria on the tongue, appearing in more than 80% of the samples."Our research is completely new because no one has ever observed the biofilm on the tongue in this way. By clearly distinguishing each type of bacteria, we can observe how it is distributed," explained Borisy.

"Tongue is extremely important because it contains a large number of microorganisms and is also a part of the health assessment." Tongue sticking out "is one of the first requirements of the doctor," co-author Jessica Mark Welch, home Microorganisms at the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said.

Thanks to the DNA sequencing, scientists have gained a lot of information about which types of bacteria live in the human body. However, this is the first time they have been able to observe bacterial communities on the tongue in such detail. Knowing the location and location of each bacterium helps researchers understand more about how it works and how it interacts.

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