ArticleNature microbiology2017
Stress and stability: applying the Anna Karenina principle to animal microbiomes.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 465 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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.
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Who cites it
465 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 987 citations in OpenAlex.
- Taxonomy, tissue, and habitat influence mollusk microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Pooled it
- A host of issues: pseudoreplication in host-microbiota studies.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- Gut microbiome-based machine learning for diagnostic prediction of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2023Pooled it
- Dolutegravir restores gut microbiota in late-stage HIV-1 unlike darunavir: an open-label, randomized clinical trial.Nature communications · 2026Trial
- 4-1BBCell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Dynamic flexibility of the murine gut microbiota during morphine disturbance enables escape from the stable dysbiosis that is associated with addiction-like behavior.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Gut microbial markers of immunotherapy response in melanoma: a cross-cohort analysis including the first Russian dataset.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Microbial and Metabolic Flexibility in Response to Habitat Disturbance in an Ecologically Specialist Primate.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Alterations of gut microbiota in Down syndrome and their association with Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Induced Dysbiosis Modifies Physiological Responses to Warming in a Temperate Sponge.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Lifestyle Impacts the Oral Microbiome of Classical and Post-Classical Societies in Italy.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Occupational exposure to Baijiu fermentation environments alters nasal microbiota composition: a comparative analysis of Strong-flavor and Sesame-flavor production systems.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- SARS‑CoV‑2 Associated Shifts in the Upper Respiratory Tract Mycobiome in Non-hospitalized Cases.Mycopathologia · 2026Article
- Article
- Differential skin-bacteriome-mediated defense against chytridiomycosis in two neotropical frog species.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Mapping the subgingival HerBiome and HisBiome over the human healthspan.Journal of periodontology · 2026Article
- How do anthropogenic changes affect wildlife microbiomes?PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Changes to Skin Microbiome Community Dynamics Support Resistance to Enzootic and Epizootic Strains of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in the Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum).Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Adolescent Dietary Supplementation of Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Alleviates PTSD-Like Fear Memory and Affective Dysregulation in Rats.Smart medicine · 2026Article
- Astrovirus infection alters gut microbial communities in a widespread neotropical bat across human-modified landscapes.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
405 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
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
All animals studied to date are associated with symbiotic communities of microorganisms. These animal microbiotas often play important roles in normal physiological function and susceptibility to disease; predicting their responses to perturbation represents an essential challenge for microbiology. Most studies of microbiome dynamics test for patterns in which perturbation shifts animal microbiomes from a healthy to a dysbiotic stable state. Here, we consider a complementary alternative: that the microbiological changes induced by many perturbations are stochastic, and therefore lead to transitions from stable to unstable community states. The result is an 'Anna Karenina principle' for animal microbiomes, in which dysbiotic individuals vary more in microbial community composition than healthy individuals-paralleling Leo Tolstoy's dictum that "all happy families look alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". We argue that Anna Karenina effects are a common and important response of animal microbiomes to stressors that reduce the ability of the host or its microbiome to regulate community composition. Patterns consistent with Anna Karenina effects have been found in systems ranging from the surface of threatened corals exposed to above-average temperatures, to the lungs of patients suffering from HIV/AIDs. However, despite their apparent ubiquity, these patterns are easily missed or discarded by some common workflows, and therefore probably underreported. Now that a substantial body of research has established the existence of these patterns in diverse systems, rigorous testing, intensive time-series datasets and improved stochastic modelling will help to explore their importance for topics ranging from personalized medicine to theories of the evolution of host-microorganism symbioses.
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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.