ArticleNature communications2014
Tipping elements in the human intestinal ecosystem.
Article in Nature communications, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 153 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
153 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic review on the role of the gut microbiota in tumors and their treatment.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- Dynamics of Gut Microbiota After Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Ulcerative Colitis: Success Linked to Control of Prevotellaceae.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2025Trial
- Methanogenesis associated with altered microbial production of short-chain fatty acids and human-host metabolizable energy.The ISME journal · 2025Trial
- A prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-response relationship study to investigate efficacy of fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) on human gut microflora.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Effect of Vegan Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Carnitine- and Choline-Derived Trimethylamine-N-Oxide Production and Vascular Inflammation in Patients With Metabolic Syndrome.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2018Trial
- Microbial shifts and signatures of long-term remission in ulcerative colitis after faecal microbiota transplantation.The ISME journal · 2017Trial
- Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of SYN-004, an Orally Administered β-Lactamase for the Prevention of Clostridium difficile-Associated Disease and Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea, in Two Phase 1 Studies.Clinical drug investigation · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Significant differences in fecal microbiota are associated with various stages of glucose tolerance in African American male veterans.Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine · 2015Trial
- Nationwide cohort study reveals low bifidobacteria and distinct microbiota composition and function in Swedish newborns.Gut microbes · 2026Observational
- Efficient and scalable Python implementation of ANCOM-BC and ANCOM-BC2 for omics differential abundance testing.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Clinical Subtype Stratification Reveals Gut Microbial Alterations, Candidate Markers, and Co-Occurrence Network Remodeling in Coronary Artery Disease.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- A spectrum of gut microbiota signatures predicts long-term health status.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- MeLSI: Metric Learning for Statistical Inference in microbiome community composition analysis.mSystems · 2026Article
- Reconstructing community dynamics from limited observations.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Keystone concept revisited: insights into microbial community dynamics and control.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Unveiling the link between oral microbial α-diversity, advanced cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, and mortality.Journal of oral microbiology · 2026Article
- Distinct patterns and interactions of microbiota and short-chain fatty acids in breast milk and infant gut from rural and urban dyads.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Rumen metabolic environment of dairy cows varying in susceptibility of subacute ruminal acidosis modifies in vitro bacterial composition and fermentation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Emergence of alternative states in a synthetic human gut microbial community.Nature communications · 2025Article
93 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
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The microbial communities living in the human intestine can have profound impact on our well-being and health. However, we have limited understanding of the mechanisms that control this complex ecosystem. Here, based on a deep phylogenetic analysis of the intestinal microbiota in a thousand western adults, we identify groups of bacteria that exhibit robust bistable abundance distributions. These bacteria are either abundant or nearly absent in most individuals, and exhibit decreased temporal stability at the intermediate abundance range. The abundances of these bimodally distributed bacteria vary independently, and their abundance distributions are not affected by short-term dietary interventions. However, their contrasting alternative states are associated with host factors such as ageing and overweight. We propose that the bistable groups reflect tipping elements of the intestinal microbiota, whose critical transitions may have profound health implications and diagnostic potential.
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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.