ArticleThe ISME journal2013
Evaluating rRNA as an indicator of microbial activity in environmental communities: limitations and uses.
Article in The ISME journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 345 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
345 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Functional Redundancy Enables Stable Treatment Performance Across Taxonomically Diverse Dairy Wastewater Microbiomes.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Pooled it
- From dividing to dormant: embracing the full activity spectrum for environmental microorganisms.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2026Review
- Age, strain, and gut section shape the microbiome of commercial laying hens.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Microbial Transcriptional and Metabolic Shifts Mediate Rhizosphere Organic Carbon Accumulation in Alpine Grasslands Following Six Years of Continuous Nitrogen Addition.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- In Situ Bacterioplankton Growth Partitioning by High-Resolution Metatranscriptomics.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- DNA and RNA metabarcoding reveal shared dominant seed-borne fungi.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Depth-resolved transcriptional activity of antibiotic resistance genes in deep permafrost of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Conventional and biodegradable microplastics elicit contrasting taxon-level responses in rhizosphere microbiomes of maize and strawberry.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Aquaculture facility-specific microbiota shape the zebrafish gut microbiome.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Selective survival of anaerobic digester microbes afterWater science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research · 2026Article
- Species sorting shapes the divergence of a traditional fermented dairy-derived bacterial community with repeatable functionality during propagation with alternative substrates.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- A photoactivation-free viability PCR reagent for rapid, culture-independent detection of live bacteria.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Transcriptional and metabolic stasis define desiccation-induced dormancy in the soil bacteriummSystems · 2026Article
- DNA and RNA-based amplicon sequencing of paired supragingival and dentin lesion plaque in children with severe early childhood caries.International journal of oral science · 2026Article
- Shared stream-lake patterns in diversity, rRNA-based activity and community assembly of bacteria and microeukaryotes under distinct hydrological regimes.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2026Article
- Examining the Effects: Lack of Impact by Endolysin and Phage Treatment on Rotifer and Larvae Microbiota.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Distinct changes in riparian sediment microbial communities with depth and time since dam removal.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Artificial lagoon project alters archaeal diversity, community assembly, and potential activity around a nearshore island: insights from an annual cycle.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Bio-Based Fertilizers from Waste: Nutrient Recovery, Soil Health, and Circular Economy Impacts.Toxics · 2026Review
- Improved RNA-based metagenomic sequencing for rapid pathogen detection in pets.BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
285 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbes exist in a range of metabolic states (for example, dormant, active and growing) and analysis of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is frequently employed to identify the 'active' fraction of microbes in environmental samples. While rRNA analyses are no longer commonly used to quantify a population's growth rate in mixed communities, due to rRNA concentration not scaling linearly with growth rate uniformly across taxa, rRNA analyses are still frequently used toward the more conservative goal of identifying populations that are currently active in a mixed community. Yet, evidence indicates that the general use of rRNA as a reliable indicator of metabolic state in microbial assemblages has serious limitations. This report highlights the complex and often contradictory relationships between rRNA, growth and activity. Potential mechanisms for confounding rRNA patterns are discussed, including differences in life histories, life strategies and non-growth activities. Ways in which rRNA data can be used for useful characterization of microbial assemblages are presented, along with questions to be addressed in future studies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.