Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct 27;9(1):1385369.
doi: 10.1080/20002297.2017.1385369. eCollection 2017.

A dysbiotic mycobiome dominated by Candida albicans is identified within oral squamous-cell carcinomas

Manosha Perera  1 , Nezar Noor Al-Hebshi  2 , Irosha Perera  3 , Deepak Ipe  4   5 , Glen C Ulett  4   5 , David J Speicher  5   6   7 , Tsute Chen  8 , Newell W Johnson  1   5   9
Affiliations

A dysbiotic mycobiome dominated by Candida albicans is identified within oral squamous-cell carcinomas

Manosha Perera et al. J Oral Microbiol. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to characterize the mycobiome associated with oral squamous-cell carcinoma (OSCC). DNA was extracted from 52 tissue biopsies (cases: 25 OSCC; controls: 27 intra-oral fibro-epithelial polyps [FEP]) and sequenced for the fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 region using Illumina™ 2 x300bp chemistry. Merged reads were classified to species level using a BLASTN-algorithm with UNITE's named species sequences as reference. Downstream analyses were performed using QIIME™ and linear discriminant analysis effect size. A total of 364 species representing 160 genera and two phyla (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) were identified, with Candida and Malassezia making up 48% and 11% of the average mycobiome, respectively. However, only five species and four genera were detected in ≥50% of the samples. The species richness and diversity were significantly lower in OSCC. Genera Candida, Hannaella, and Gibberella were overrepresented in OSCC; Alternaria and Trametes were more abundant in FEP. Species-wise, Candida albicans, Candida etchellsii, and a Hannaella luteola-like species were enriched in OSCC, while aHanseniaspora uvarum-like species, Malassezia restricta, and Aspergillus tamarii were the most significantly abundant in FEP. In conclusion, a dysbiotic mycobiome dominated by C. albicans was found in association with OSCC, a finding worth further investigation.

Keywords: DNA ribosomal spacer; Fungi; carcinoma; high-throughput nucleotide sequencing; microbiome; mouth; mycobiome; squamous cell.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mycobiome profile. Average relative abundances of the two phyla identified (a) as well as the genera (b) and species (c) detected in ≥15% of the samples.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Rarefaction and β-diversity. (a) Rarefaction curves showing the number of observed species as a function of sequencing depth. (b) Non-clustering of the study subjects by principal components analysis (weighted Unifrac).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Differentially abundant taxa. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis showing genera (a) and species (b) that were significantly differentially abundant between the cases and controls (LDA score ≥3). The differences were also found to be significant by the Mann–Whitney test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Ervik M, et al. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11 [Internet]. Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2013. [cited 2013]. Available from: http://globocan.iarc.fr
    1. Warnakulasuriya S. Global epidemiology of oral and oropharyngeal cancer. Oral Oncol. 2009;45:309–9. Epub 2008 Sep 23. - PubMed
    1. Wang B, Zhang S, Yue K, et al. The recurrence and survival of oral squamous cell carcinoma: a report of 275 cases. Chin J Cancer. 2013;32:614–618. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Petti S. Lifestyle risk factors for oral cancer. Oral Oncology. 2009;45:340–350. - PubMed
    1. Gupta B, Johnson NW, Kumar N. Global epidemiology of head and neck cancers: a continuing challenge. Oncology. 2016;91:13–23. - PubMed

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the The Australian Research Council; Self-finance (M.P. and I.P.); Griffith University Higher Degree Scholarships for international students.

LinkOut - more resources