ArticlePloS one2016
Human Gut Bacteria Are Sensitive to Melatonin and Express Endogenous Circadian Rhythmicity.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 127 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
127 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 251 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of helminth infections on the human gut microbiome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2023Pooled it
- WORKbiota: A Systematic Review about the Effects of Occupational Exposure on Microbiota and Workers' Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Low circadian clock genes expression in cancers: A meta-analysis of its association with clinicopathological features and prognosis.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Lower 24-hour urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin and exploratory bile-acid and microbiome associations in adults with dyslipidemia: a prospectively enrolled cross-sectional study.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles as Regulators of the Gut Microbiome-Circadian Axis in Inflammatory and Metabolic Diseases.Journal of microbiology and biotechnology · 2026Review
- The Bacillus subtilis circadian clock coordinates intricate spatiotemporal organisation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Daily rhythms modulate Acinetobacter baumannii physiology impacting infection outcome and antibiotic-inactivating capacity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- An unrecognized host response to microbial exposure resets circadian timing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Timekeepers of the gut: host circadian rhythms and microbial modulators.Life metabolism · 2026Review
- Circadian Rhythm Disorder-Related Dysfunctions are Exacerbated by Aging and Ameliorated by Time-Restricted Feeding.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- Mechanistic insights into pancreatic cancer progression from circadian rhythm disruption and gut microbiota dysbiosis (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2026Review
- By dawn or dusk-how circadian timing rewrites bacterial infection outcomes.FEBS letters · 2026Review
- Nocturnal Melatonin Deficiency in Colorectal Cancer: Independent Predictive Value Beyond Sleep Quality.The Turkish journal of gastroenterology : the official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Circadian considerations in antimicrobials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Restoring circadian disrupted gut microbial metabolite rhythms with phytochemicals: a new avenue against metabolic disease.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- The melatonin-microbiome axis: a new frontier in gut health for the immunomodulatory, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.Inflammopharmacology · 2026Review
- Do microbiota rhythms influence cognitive performance? - A narrative review.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Link Between Circadian Disruption and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Insights from Peripheral Inflammation.Current opinion in physiology · 2025Article
- Circadian Rhythms in Gastroenterology: The Biological Clock's Impact on Gut Health.Gastroenterology · 2025Review
- Circadian Biology in Parasites: Beyond Known Mechanisms.Annual review of microbiology · 2025Review
67 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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are fundamental properties of most eukaryotes, but evidence of biological clocks that drive these rhythms in prokaryotes has been restricted to Cyanobacteria. In vertebrates, the gastrointestinal system expresses circadian patterns of gene expression, motility and secretion in vivo and in vitro, and recent studies suggest that the enteric microbiome is regulated by the host's circadian clock. However, it is not clear how the host's clock regulates the microbiome. Here, we demonstrate at least one species of commensal bacterium from the human gastrointestinal system, Enterobacter aerogenes, is sensitive to the neurohormone melatonin, which is secreted into the gastrointestinal lumen, and expresses circadian patterns of swarming and motility. Melatonin specifically increases the magnitude of swarming in cultures of E. aerogenes, but not in Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae. The swarming appears to occur daily, and transformation of E. aerogenes with a flagellar motor-protein driven lux plasmid confirms a temperature-compensated circadian rhythm of luciferase activity, which is synchronized in the presence of melatonin. Altogether, these data demonstrate a circadian clock in a non-cyanobacterial prokaryote and suggest the human circadian system may regulate its microbiome through the entrainment of bacterial clocks.
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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.