Streptococcus mutans is the leading cause of dental caries (tooth decay) worldwide and is considered to be the most cariogenic of all of the oral streptococci. The genome of S. mutans UA159, a serotype c strain, has been completely sequenced and is composed of 2,030,936 base pairs. It contains 1,963 ORFs, 63% of which have been assigned putative functions. The genome analysis provides further insight into how S. mutans has adapted to surviving the oral environment through resource acquisition, defense against host factors, and use of gene products that maintain its niche against microbial competitors. S. mutans metabolizes a wide variety of carbohydrates via nonoxidative pathways, and all of these pathways have been identified, along with the associated transport systems whose genes account for almost 15% of the genome. Virulence genes associated with extracellular adherent glucan production, adhesins, acid tolerance, proteases, and putative hemolysins have been identified. Strain UA159 is naturally competent and contains all of the genes essential for competence and quorum sensing. Mobile genetic elements in the form of IS elements and transposons are prominent in the genome and include a previously uncharacterized conjugative transposon and a composite transposon containing genes for the synthesis of antibiotics of the gramicidin/bacitracin family; however, no bacteriophage genomes are present.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 February 2022.
All research outputs
#3,772,816
of 34,763,505 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#39,043
of 119,650 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,282
of 73,814 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#132
of 545 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,763,505 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 119,650 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 73,814 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 545 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.
