ArticlePLoS biology2017
Stochastic assembly produces heterogeneous communities in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine.
Article in PLoS biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers.
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84 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Stochastic colonization and host-to-host transmission shape gut bacterial variability.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Modulating microbial intake helps to maintain the gut microbiome diversity.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Host-Associated Bacterial Community Changes After Laboratory Introduction Vary With Wolbachia Presence.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Cluster dispersal shapes microbial diversity during community assembly.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- The assembly of microbial communities on red sandstone surfaces was shaped by dispersal limitation and heterogeneous selection.mSystems · 2026Article
- Caenorhabditis elegans as an experimental model for resilience-boosting microbiota interventions in nonmodel ectotherms.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- A novel, fig-associated microbe promotes reproductive success via variable life history mechanisms inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Experimental Immigration Mediates Ecological Selection and Drift in Monarch Microbiome Assembly.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Drivers of diversity within and between microbial communities during stochastic assembly.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
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- Variance in C. elegans gut bacterial load suggests complex host-microbe dynamics.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
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- An ecological and stochastic perspective on persisters resuscitation.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Article
- The Relationship Between Soil and Gut Microbiota Influences the Adaptive Strategies of Goitered Gazelles in the Qaidam Basin.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- The role of animal hosts in shaping gut microbiome variation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Ecological drift during colonization drives within-host and between-host heterogeneity in an animal-associated symbiont.PLoS biology · 2024Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Abstract
Host-associated bacterial communities vary extensively between individuals, but it can be very difficult to determine the sources of this heterogeneity. Here, we demonstrate that stochastic bacterial community assembly in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine is sufficient to produce strong interworm heterogeneity in community composition. When worms are fed with two neutrally competing, fluorescently labeled bacterial strains, we observe stochastically driven bimodality in community composition, in which approximately half of the worms are dominated by each bacterial strain. A simple model incorporating stochastic colonization suggests that heterogeneity between worms is driven by the low rate at which bacteria successfully establish new intestinal colonies. We can increase this rate experimentally by feeding worms at high bacterial density; in these conditions, the bimodality disappears. These results demonstrate that demographic noise is a potentially important driver of diversity in bacterial community formation and suggest a role for C. elegans as a model system for ecology of host-associated communities.
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