Dental caries, as one of the most globally prevalent diseases, cause grave health and economic burdens and is recognized as a biofilm-mediated multifactorial disease that results in the destruction of tooth hard tissue. Normally, microbial communities maintain dynamic homeostasis. However, when biofilms are overexposed to dietary carbohydrates and shift from eubiosis to dysbiosis, acidogenic and aciduric microorganisms with survival advantages, such as Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), promote the process of dental caries by virtue of their virulence, including acid tolerance, acid production, and adhesion.

Due to its important role in human dental caries, S. mutans has been recognized as a model organism to study caries-associated biofilms. Although S. mutans and dental caries have been studied for many years, there are still many gaps in our knowledge and the current situation of dental caries control is not optimistic. Research is required into how S. mutans regulates its genes and performs its functions in response to external stresses, as well as the methods of communication between microorganisms within dental plaques and how dental caries are promoted, in addition to ecological methods to control S. mutans and complicated biofilms. With the prevalence of drug-resistant strains and persisters, studies of the relevant molecular mechanisms and studies to develop effective strategies against these are urgently needed.

This Special Issue invites authors to contribute research associated with this opportunistic cariogenic bacterium, S. mutans. New drugs or strategies to control biofilms to further control caries, new gene functions, drug resistance or tolerance mechanisms of S. mutans, and crosstalk between S. mutans and other dental plaque residents are highly encouraged. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Strategies to control Streptococcus mutans biofilms or Streptococcus mutans containing biofilms
• Targeting Streptococcus mutans specifically within dual-species, multi-species, or complex biofilms
• Stress responses of Streptococcus mutans
• Signal pathways of Streptococcus mutans
• Interaction between Streptococcus mutans and oral microbes
• Drug resistance and persisters of Streptococcus mutans
• Virulence of Streptococcus mutans
• Gene function of Streptococcus mutans
• Effects of life habit on Streptococcus mutans
• Omics analysis of Streptococcus mutans
• New strains of Streptococcus mutans
• New techniques and methods to study Streptococcus mutans