Bacteria Has Invaded Your Tongue And Here's What It Looks Like

Just to let you know, our mouth is an ideal shelter for bacteria. According to Science Alert reports, a team of researchers has collected a new series of both surprising and disturbing photos of the diverse pool of bacteria in the tongue, each species of which is described as a psychedelic and vivid color. 

The co-author of the study published in Cell Reports as well as a microbial ecologist from Massachusetts Marine Biological Laboratory, whose name is Jessica Mark Welch, emphasized the importance of the tongue on the ground that it is a traditional reference point in medicine and a big repository of microbes. Additionally, she also mentioned her team’s plan to study which bacterium is next to one another to get a better insight into these communities’ work. 

Around the edge of the tongue, Streptococcigreen bacteria, which are represented in green, gobble up oxygen with ease in their ideal kingdom. Moving on to the inner parts, the red area away from the edges is where Actinomyces thrive in their anaerobic environment. Faraway from these border regions are Rothia, which is shown in cyan. 

Totally, it is estimated that approximately 700 species of bacteria consider our mouths as their home sweet home. However, the three genres of bacteria mentioned above were more popular and comprise 80 percent of the 21 healthy tongues studied in the research. 

In order to distinguish environments with a high or low level of oxygen, the bacteria form themselves layers of protective slime, called “biofilm”. 

Researcher Mark Welch pointed out bacteria’s different behaviors in a biofilm. Their metabolism exists parts that are only activated in a biofilm and they have the tendency to be resistant to antibiotics and environmental changes. 

The researchers also provided that some kinds of bacteria that create nitric oxide to control blood pressure can live on small bumps on the tongue’s surface. And the human body does not have the ability to control this process.