Roles of oral microbiota and oral-gut microbial transmission in hypertension

•This study has provided comprehensive evidence to support strong associations between oral microbiota and HTN. We discovered that 14 salivary genera and 15 subgingival genera were significantly altered in hypertension participants.•Fifteen oral genera were first found to associate with blood pressure. There were also new associations between oral microbiota and other clinical parameters been established.•This study has identified the shared genera that coexisted in saliva, subgingival plaques, and feces and illustrated the associations of the shared genera between oral and gut sample types.•This study has identified important oral-gut transmitting microbes in hypertension. Sixteen species under 5 genera were identified as oral-gut transmitters. Particularly, Veillonella was identified as a frequent oral-gut transmitter stably enriched in hypertension participants.•This study has demonstrated the potential causal link between oral-gut microbial transmission and hypertension—saliva from participants with hypertension exacerbated angiotensin II-induced hypertension in animal study. Veillonella could colonize in the gut of all mice receiving human saliva and more enriched in mice receiving saliva from hypertension participants.