{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,27]],"date-time":"2026-08-27T09:23:19Z","timestamp":1787822599650,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787702400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100008786","name":"Vicerrectorado de Investigaci\u00f3n y Posgrado, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, Peru","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["A23052141"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["A23052141"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100008786","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["A23052141"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["A23052141"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/006vs7897","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic noncommunicable disease in Peruvian schoolchildren (&gt;70%). Full-length 16S Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing enables species-level resolution unachievable with conventional Illumina V3\u2013V4 platforms, critical for resolving intrageneric diversity in the dominant oral genus Streptococcus This is a cross-sectional study (STROBE\/STORMS) of 30 children aged 8\u201310 years (15 with caries, ceod\/CPOD \u2265 1; 15 caries-free, ceod\/CPOD = 0) from IE N\u00b03036 Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s R\u00e1zuri, San Mart\u00edn de Porres, Lima, with caries status assessed by clinical examination using ICDAS-II criteria and summarized using the ceod\/CPOD indices. Full-length 16S sequencing (~1500 bp; 27F\/1492R; SQK-16S024) was performed on MinION MK1B (MN40465), with Flongle AUB828 in two runs (Run 1: 21,651 PASS reads, Q = 12.50; Run 2: 3750 PASS reads, Q = 11.89). The pipeline used was wf-16s v1.2.0 (EPI2ME, NCBI 16S rRNA), while for statistics, Mann\u2013Whitney U test, Fisher\u2019s exact test (\u03b1 = 0.05), and PERMANOVA (999 permutations) were used. In total, 126 species were identified in 63 genera and 5 phyla. Streptococcus salivarius was dominant (22.5%; 30\/30). Twenty-six species were exclusive to the caries group, led by S. mutans (7\/15, 46.7%; OR = \u221e; raw p = 0.006) and S. anginosus (4\/15, 26.7%; OR = \u221e; raw p = 0.038), plus Lancefieldella parvula, Veillonella infantium, and Actinomyces naeslundii. Fifteen species were exclusive to the healthy group, including Rothia aeria, Gemella sp., Aggregatibacter kilianii, and Bulleidia extructa. None of these taxon-level differences survived Benjamini\u2013Hochberg correction for the 126 species tested (all FDR-adjusted p &gt; 0.45); these findings are therefore presented as exploratory candidates rather than confirmed differences. Alpha diversity (Shannon p = 0.507) and global beta diversity (PERMANOVA p = 0.215) did not differ; dysbiotic convergence was significant (intragroup Bray\u2013Curtis: 0.322 vs. 0.414; p &lt; 0.001). This is the first ONT full-length 16S characterization of the salivary microbiome in Peruvian children, simultaneously identifying cariogenic and health-associated species profiles. These findings suggest dietary nitrate supplementation and xylitol as candidate prebiotic strategies warranting future intervention studies to restore health-associated taxa in caries-free children.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms14091897","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T10:59:23Z","timestamp":1787741963000},"page":"1897","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Caries-Exclusive and Health-Associated Taxa in the Peruvian Pediatric Salivary Microbiome Identified by Full-Length Nanopore 16S Sequencing: Implications for Ecological Modulation of Dental Caries"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-4844-5547","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laly Abigail","family":"Rojas Rodr\u00edguez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2820-0085","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos Michell","family":"G\u00e1lvez Ram\u00edrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2390-3491","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marco Aurelio","family":"Salvatierra Celis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Formaci\u00f3n Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Daniel Alcides Carri\u00f3n (UNDAC), Av. Daniel Alcides Carri\u00f3n s\/n, Cerro de Pasco 19001, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Justo Nilo","family":"Balcazar Conde","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Formaci\u00f3n Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Daniel Alcides Carri\u00f3n (UNDAC), Av. Daniel Alcides Carri\u00f3n s\/n, Cerro de Pasco 19001, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6113-1990","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Margarita F\u00e9","family":"Requena Mendiz\u00e1bal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6566-931X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rocio Del Pilar","family":"Bocanegra Arista","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roger D\u00e1maso","family":"Calla Poma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2164-6110","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tania Valentina","family":"Rosales Cifuentes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela Profesional de Odontolog\u00eda, Facultad de Odontolog\u00eda, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), Av. Germ\u00e1n Am\u00e9zaga 375, Lima 15081, Peru"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1046\/j..2003.com122.x","article-title":"The World Oral Health Report 2003: Continuous improvement of oral health in the 21st century\u2013The approach of the WHO Global Oral Health Programme","volume":"31","author":"Petersen","year":"2003","journal-title":"Community Dent. 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