A well-studied gram-negative subgingival organism thought to be involved in driving periodontitis, P. gingivalis, was shown to induce gene expression of IL-1β and IL-18 cytokines in gingival tissues and through NLRP3 inflammasome activation to induce alveolar bone loss in mice (Yamaguchi et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene NLRP3 and periodontitis.