Many strains of Enterococcus faecalis, a normal inhabitant of the oral cavity, elaborate a plasmid-encoded bacteriocin. The growth-inhibitory effect of this bacteriocin was observed to extend to a variety of pathogenic oral streptococci, including those that play a major role in tooth surface colonization and caries formation. These results suggest that transient colonization by bacteriocin-producing E. faecalis may effect shifts in oral colonization by susceptible organisms and that bacteriocin-producing E. faecalis may be a candidate for application in strain replacement therapy.
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