Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28625783›Full record

ArticleCurrent biology : CB2017

Probabilistic Invasion Underlies Natural Gut Microbiome Stability.

Benjamin Obadia, Z T Güvener, Vivian Zhang, Javier A Ceja-Navarro, Eoin L Brodie, William W Ja, William B Ludington

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current biology : CB, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
118citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

118 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
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  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Insects · 2026
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  13. Environment and diet shape the geography-specificApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025
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  14. Is it time to assignApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025
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  15. Article
  16. Review
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  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Infection and immunity · 2025
    Review

58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Benjamin ObadiaDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Z T GüvenerDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Vivian ZhangDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Javier A Ceja-NavarroEarth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Eoin L BrodieEarth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
William W JaDepartment of Metabolism and Aging, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA.
William B LudingtonDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Electronic address: will.ludington@berkeley.edu.

Funding

Developing a reduced complexity model gut microbiome in the behavior model, Drosophila melanogasterDP5OD017851 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI LUDINGTON, WILLIAM BASIL · 2013 to 2017
$2.0M
NIH HHS DP5 OD017851
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Species compositions of gut microbiomes impact host health [1-3], but the processes determining these compositions are largely unknown. An unexplained observation is that gut species composition varies widely between individuals but is largely stable over time within individuals [4, 5]. Stochastic factors during establishment may drive these alternative stable states (colonized versus non-colonized) [6, 7], which can influence susceptibility to pathogens, such as Clostridium difficile. Here we sought to quantify and model the dose response, dynamics, and stability of bacterial colonization in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) gut. Our precise, high-throughput technique revealed stable between-host variation in colonization when individual germ-free flies were fed their own natural commensals (including the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum). Some flies were colonized while others remained germ-free even at extremely high bacterial doses. Thus, alternative stable states of colonization exist even in this low-complexity model of host-microbe interactions. These alternative states are driven by a fundamental asymmetry between the inoculum population and the stably colonized population that is mediated by spatial localization and a population bottleneck, which makes stochastic effects important by lowering the effective population size. Prior colonization with other bacteria reduced the chances of subsequent colonization, thus increasing the stability of higher-diversity guts. Therefore, stable gut diversity may be driven by inherently stochastic processes, which has important implications for combatting infectious diseases and for stably establishing probiotics in the gut.

Indexed as

Gastrointestinal MicrobiomeSymbiosisAnimalsDrosophila melanogasterFemaleGastrointestinal TractProbabilitybacterial communitycolonizationDrosophilagut bacteriainvasionLactobacilluslottery modelmicrobiomepopulation bottleneckstochastic assembly

Identifiers

PMID28625783
PMCPMC5555957

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.