F. alocis thus seems to be a powerful diagnostic marker organism for periodontal disease. FISH revealed the involvement of F. alocis in numerous structural arrangements that point to its potential role as one

of the architects of structural organisation within periodontal biofilms. Filifactor alocis should be considered an important periodontal pathogen and warrants further research. Acknowledgements We thank Eva Kulik, University of Basel, and Eivind Strøm, University of Oslo, for providing clinical samples, Cindy Hefenbrock and Marie Knüver for excellent technical assistance, Derek Ramsey for proof reading, and Dr. Wolf-Ulrich Klotz for his support. This work was supported by the Sonnenfeld-Stiftung, Berlin, Germany, and by a Rahel-Hirsch selleck compound learn more grant from Charité – Universitätsmedizin to AM. Electronic supplementary material Additional file 1: Optimization of probe FIAL for FISH using the program daime. FISH was performed incubating fixed cells of F. alocis and F. villosus with different hybridization mixes. Signal intensities (Relative fluorescent Units, RU) emitted by F. alocis and F. villosus at different formamide concentrations were calculated from images taken with a fixed exposure time. Due to unspecific binding of FIAL, the light emission of F. villosus cells

remained below 50 RU at every level of formamide. The signal emitted by F. alocis cells was considered sufficient using formamide concentrations of up to 20% (v/v). (PPT 53 KB) References 1. Haffajee AD, Socransky SS: Microbial etiological agents of destructive periodontal diseases. Periodontol 2000 1994, 5:78–111.PubMedCrossRef 2. Kolenbrander

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