Alyssa N. Deever

Strain-Level Diversity Decouples Biofilm Architecture, Acidogenic and Aciduric Traits, and Antimicrobial Tolerance in Streptococcus mutans

It is demonstrated that disease-relevant traits commonly attributed to S. mutans are distributed unevenly and only partially coupled across strain backgrounds, with biofilm spatial organization failing to serve as a dominant phenotype linking acid accumulation, acid tolerance, and antimicrobial susceptibility.