Mutans streptococci play an important role on the development of dental caries. It has been suggested that mothers and fathers could be sources of transmission of mutans streptococci to their infants. Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the transmission of Streptococcus mutans in a group of Turkish families by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) method. Methods: Forty-nine mothers, 20 fathers and 56 children aged between 0-5 years participated in the study. Clinical examination and a questionnaire were carried to obtain information about caries prevalence scored by DMFS or dfs, general health, diet regimens and principal caretaker of the child. Unstimulated saliva was collected from the parents and children and cultivated on S.mutans selective TYCSB agar. S.mutans were detected from 33 children, 43 mothers and 18 fathers. The typical isolates of S.mutans were identified by using classical microbiological methods. S.mutans ATCC 10449 was used as the reference strain. The detection of the transmission of S.mutans from parents to their children were evaluated on 70 isolates obtained from 32 families. Molecular typing of S.mutans clones was performed by using AP-PCR with OPA5 primer for the detection of transmission. Data were processed with the aid of SPSS 10.0 statistical software. Results: The homologies of strain types between mother and child were found as 24 %, and 16.6 % for father and child. A significant positive correlation (p<0.001) was found between the infected children and parents with high S.mutans levels. Conclusion: This current investigation supported the possibility of mothers and fathers as sources of transmission of S.mutans to their children and it was likely that children were infected by parents with high levels of S.mutans in their mouths. Acknowledgements: This study was funded by The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey and Ege University Science Technology Center.

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