ArticlePLoS biology2015
Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes.
Article in PLoS biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 490 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
490 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Exploring Oral Microbiome in Healthy Infants and Children: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The origins and evolution of the RNA virome in land flora.Molecular plant · 2026Article
- From environmental perception to reproductive allocation: the microbiome-membrane-mitochondria axis in poultry.Poultry science · 2026Review
- The Host-Symbiont-Pathogen Triad inMarine drugs · 2026Review
- Animal gut microbes and microbiomes in the 21st century and beyond.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- A genomic catalog of Earth's bacterial and archaeal symbionts.Nature biotechnology · 2026Article
- Deficiency of Natural Plant-Derived Gut Metabolites Is a Potential Cause of Skeletal Deformities in Captive-Bred Green Peafowl (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Beyond Symbiosis: The Mind-Bending Role of Microbiomes in Host-Parasite Interactions.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Is a Commensal Here, a Pathogen There? Genotype Specific Responses by the Sea Anemone Nematostella vectensis to Vibrio Species.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- The ageing holobiont: crosstalk between telomere dynamics, oxidative stress and the gut microbiome.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Toxic metals differentially affect bacterial and fungal seed endophytes in Arabidopsis arenosa.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Holobiontic Intercellular Relationships Between the Oral Cavity and the Rest of the Human Organism: A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Environmental microbial communities and host selection shape larval microbiomes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Microbiome Structure of Endemic Hawaiian Drosophila Is Shaped More by Habitat Than Host Identity.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Altitude-Associated Divergence of the Gut Microbiome in Endangered Forest Musk Deer: Evidence From Integrated Metagenomics, Metabolomics, and Culturomics.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Humans as an extended phenotype of their microbiota.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026Article
- Seagrasses host unique and vulnerable microbiomes, structured by inter-domain microbial interactions.iScience · 2026Article
- Pancreatic Cancer in the Holobiont and Therapeutic Targets: A Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Genomic-microbial coevolution in human development: chromosome 2 fusion, and human accelerated regions.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2026Review
- Study on the diversity, structure, and function of endophytic bacteria in seeds of genuine medicinal plants in gansu province.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
430 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Groundbreaking research on the universality and diversity of microorganisms is now challenging the life sciences to upgrade fundamental theories that once seemed untouchable. To fully appreciate the change that the field is now undergoing, one has to place the epochs and foundational principles of Darwin, Mendel, and the modern synthesis in light of the current advances that are enabling a new vision for the central importance of microbiology. Animals and plants are no longer heralded as autonomous entities but rather as biomolecular networks composed of the host plus its associated microbes, i.e., "holobionts." As such, their collective genomes forge a "hologenome," and models of animal and plant biology that do not account for these intergenomic associations are incomplete. Here, we integrate these concepts into historical and contemporary visions of biology and summarize a predictive and refutable framework for their evaluation. Specifically, we present ten principles that clarify and append what these concepts are and are not, explain how they both support and extend existing theory in the life sciences, and discuss their potential ramifications for the multifaceted approaches of zoology and botany. We anticipate that the conceptual and evidence-based foundation provided in this essay will serve as a roadmap for hypothesis-driven, experimentally validated research on holobionts and their hologenomes, thereby catalyzing the continued fusion of biology's subdisciplines. At a time when symbiotic microbes are recognized as fundamental to all aspects of animal and plant biology, the holobiont and hologenome concepts afford a holistic view of biological complexity that is consistent with the generally reductionist approaches of biology.
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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.