ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2016
Microbes at Surface-Air Interfaces: The Metabolic Harnessing of Relative Humidity, Surface Hygroscopicity, and Oligotrophy for Resilience.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Context-dependent effects of antimicrobial coatings on microbial load and bacterial community composition on public high-touch surfaces.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Rock surfaces as reservoirs for airborne halophilic microorganisms in the Bochnia Salt Mine.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Effects of wetting events on mass timber surface microbial communities and VOC emissions: implications for building operation and occupant well-being.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2025Article
- Radioactive waste microbiology: predicting microbial survival and activity in changing extreme environments.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Bacterial Surface Detachment during Nebulization with Contaminated Reusable Home Nebulizers.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Performance comparison of heat recovery systems to reduce viral contagion in indoor environments.Applied thermal engineering · 2021Article
- Access to thermally robust and abrasion resistant antimicrobial plastics: synthesis of UV-curable phosphonium small molecule coatings and extrudable additives.RSC advances · 2021Article
- Review and comparison of HVAC operation guidelines in different countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Building and environment · 2021Review
- Surface-attached sulfonamide containing quaternary ammonium antimicrobials for textiles and plastics.RSC advances · 2019Article
- Cryptococcal Traits Mediating Adherence to Biotic and Abiotic Surfaces.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The human environment is predominantly not aqueous, and microbes are ubiquitous at the surface-air interfaces with which we interact. Yet microbial studies at surface-air interfaces are largely survival-oriented, whilst microbial metabolism has overwhelmingly been investigated from the perspective of liquid saturation. This study explored microbial survival and metabolism under desiccation, particularly the influence of relative humidity (RH), surface hygroscopicity, and nutrient availability on the interchange between these two phenomena. The combination of a hygroscopic matrix (i.e., clay or 4,000 MW polyethylene glycol) and high RH resulted in persistent measurable microbial metabolism during desiccation. In contrast, no microbial metabolism was detected at (a) hygroscopic interfaces at low RH, and (b) less hygroscopic interfaces (i.e., sand and plastic/glass) at high or low RH. Cell survival was conversely inhibited at high RH and promoted at low RH, irrespective of surface hygroscopicity. Based on this demonstration of metabolic persistence and survival inhibition at high RH, it was proposed that biofilm metabolic rates might inversely influence whole-biofilm resilience, with 'resilience' defined in this study as a biofilm's capacity to recover from desiccation. The concept of whole-biofilm resilience being promoted by oligotrophy was supported in desiccation-tolerant
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.