ArticleThe ISME journal2017
Where less may be more: how the rare biosphere pulls ecosystems strings.
Article in The ISME journal, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 489 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
489 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Distinct Features Based on Partitioning of the Endophytic Fungi of Cereals and Other Grasses.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Pooled it
- Gut microbial diversity and candidate keystone taxa in Indian tribes: Insights across lifestyle-ecological continuum and health associations.Current research in microbial sciences · 2026Article
- Protist-mediated microbiome governance: Integrating trophic ecology, rhizosphere biology, and biotechnological potential.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Rare Biosphere Reveals a Decoupling Between Microbial Abundance and Intrinsic Physiological Potential in Shanxi Aged Vinegar Fermentation.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Convergent Bacterial but Divergent Fungal Communities in the Tobacco Rhizosphere Under Intensive Management on Contrasting Soils.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Reveals Thermophilic Microbial Diversity and Putative Hydrolase-Encoding Genes in the El Tatio Geothermal Field.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- From chaos to order: cross-kingdom coordination buffers microbial communities against typhoon impacts.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Different Ferromanganese Concretion Morphologies Host Distinct Microbial Communities and Metal Accumulation Patterns in the Baltic Sea.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Amplicon sequencing reveals impact of imidacloprid residues on diversity profile of grape fructosphere microbiota.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Shifts in Rhizosphere Bacterial Community Composition and Predicted Functional Potential Associated with Impatiens parviflora Invasion in Temperate Forest.Microbial ecology · 2026Article
- Temperature-associated microbial succession and volatile flavor compound dynamics during cigar tobacco leaf fermentation.Bioresources and bioprocessing · 2026Article
- Different sodium and potassium homeostasis patterns between rare and abundant microbial taxa in biological soil crusts revealed by metatranscriptomics.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2026Article
- Engineering Pseudomonas protegens as a Targeted Antifungal-Effector Delivery Chassis via Heterologous Type III Secretion System Reconstitution.Microbial biotechnology · 2026Article
- Dual-platform metagenomic surveillance distinguishes pathogen and resistome hotspots across agricultural and mixed-use watersheds.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Agricultural intensification, microbial homogenization and loss of rare microbiota.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Advances and future directions in identifying specific taxa from microbial meta-omics data: from pipeline to deep learning.mSystems · 2026Review
- Ecological and genomic dynamics of the soil microbiome under sustained pressure from Phytophthora nicotianae, the causal agent of tobacco black shank disease.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Dynamics and Diversity of Microbial Community Succession During the Solid-State Fermentation Process of Fuzhuan Brick Sea Buckthorn Leaf Tea.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Stochastic Forces in Microbial Community Assembly: Founding Community Size Governs Divergent Ecological Trajectories.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Rapid Remodeling of the Human Gut Microbiome in Response to Short-Term Animal Product Restriction and Associations with Host Molecular Phenotypes.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
429 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
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rare species are increasingly recognized as crucial, yet vulnerable components of Earth's ecosystems. This is also true for microbial communities, which are typically composed of a high number of relatively rare species. Recent studies have demonstrated that rare species can have an over-proportional role in biogeochemical cycles and may be a hidden driver of microbiome function. In this review, we provide an ecological overview of the rare microbial biosphere, including causes of rarity and the impacts of rare species on ecosystem functioning. We discuss how rare species can have a preponderant role for local biodiversity and species turnover with rarity potentially bound to phylogenetically conserved features. Rare microbes may therefore be overlooked keystone species regulating the functioning of host-associated, terrestrial and aquatic environments. We conclude this review with recommendations to guide scientists interested in investigating this rapidly emerging research area.
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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.