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The primary purpose of the present study was to compare the microbial profiles of the tongue dorsa of healthy subjects and subjects with halitosis by using culture-independent molecular methods. Our overall goal was to determine the bacterial diversity on the surface of the tongue dorsum as part of our ongoing efforts to identify all cultivable and not-yet-cultivated species of the oral cavity. Tongue dorsum scrapings were analyzed from healthy subjects with no complaints of halitosis and subjects with halitosis, defined as an organoleptic score of 2 or more and volatile sulfur compound levels greater than 200 ppb. 16S rRNA genes from DNA isolated from tongue dorsum scrapings were amplified by PCR with universally conserved bacterial primers and cloned into Escherichia coli. Typically, 50 to 100 clones were analyzed from each subject. Fifty-one strains isolated from the tongue dorsa of healthy subjects were …