J Dent res 1991, 70:1503–1507.PubMedCrossRef 37. Vacca-Smith AM, Bowen WH: buy NVP-HSP990 Binding properties of streptococcal glucosyltransferases for hydroxyapatite, saliva-coated hydroxyapatite, and bacterial surfaces. Arch Oral Biol 1998,43(2):103–110.PubMedCrossRef 38. Filoche SK, Anderson SA, Sissons CH: Biofilm growth of Lactobacillus species is promoted by Actinomyces species and Streptococcus

mutans . Oral Microbiol Immunol 2004,19(5):322–326.PubMedCrossRef 39. Li Y, Burne RA: Regulation of the gtfBC and ftf genes of Streptococcus mutans in biofilms in response to pH and carbohydrate. Microbiol 2001,147(Pt 10):2841–2848. 40. Hudson MC, Curtiss R: Regulation of expression of Streptococcus mutans genes important to virulence. Infect Immun 1990,58(2):464–470.PubMed 41. Wexler Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor NCT-501 in vitro DL, Hudson MC, Burne RA: Streptococcus mutans fructosyltransferase ( ftf ) and glucosyltransferase ( gtfBC ) operon fusion strains in continuous culture. Infect Immun 1993,61(4):1259–1267.PubMed 42. Nascimento MM, Lemos JA, Abranches J, Lin VK, Burne RA: Role of RelA of Streptococcus mutans in global

control of gene expression. J Bacteriol 2008,190(1):28–36.PubMedCrossRef 43. Bassler BL, Losick R: Bacterially speaking. Cell 2006,125(2):237–246.PubMedCrossRef 44. McNab R, Ford SK, El-Sabaeny A, Barbieri B, Cook GS, Lamont RJ: LuxS-based signaling in Streptococcus gordonii : autoinducer 2 controls carbohydrate metabolism and biofilm formation with Porphyromonas gingivalis . J Bacteriol 2003,185(1):274–284.PubMedCrossRef 45. Lonn-Stensrud J, Petersen Clomifene FC, Benneche T, Scheie AA: Synthetic bromated furanone inhibits autoinducer-2-mediated communication and biofilm formation in oral streptococci. Oral Microbiol Immunol 2007,22(5):340–346.PubMedCrossRef 46. Palmer RJ Jr, Kazmerzak K, Hansen MC, Kolenbrander PE: Mutualism versus independence: strategies of mixed-species oral biofilms in vitro using saliva as the sole nutrient source. Infect Immun 2001,69(9):5794–5804.PubMedCrossRef 47. Sztajer H, Lemme A, Vilchez

R, Schulz S, Geffers R, Yip CY, Levesque CM, Cvitkovitch DG, Wagner-Dobler I: Autoinducer-2-regulated genes in Streptococcus mutans UA159 and global metabolic effect of the luxS mutation. J Bacteriol 2008,190(1):401–415.PubMedCrossRef 48. Wen TZ, Suntharaligham P, Cvitkovitch DG, Burne RA: Trigger factor in Streptococcus mutans is involved in stress tolerance, competence development, and biofilm formation. Infect Immun 2005,73(1):219–225.PubMedCrossRef Authors’ contributions ZTW conceived the study, designed and implemented most of the experiments, and drafted the manuscript; DY carried out most of the biofilm assays and RealTime-PCR analysis; SJA was involved in parts of experimental design and data analysis; RAB participated the experimental design and data analysis and revised critically the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.