ArticleNature communications2017
Generalist species drive microbial dispersion and evolution.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 111 papers.
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
111 citing papers in PubMed.
- Turnover of microbial specialists and generalists shapes deterministic assembly and network stability along a salinity-alkalinity gradient in inland wetland soils.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2026Article
- Timescale mismatch: redefining ecological opportunity for evolution in the Anthropocene.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Elevation-structured viral ecological strategies along glacier-fed rivers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Adaptation of Soil Viruses to Salinity Stress: Insights Into Genome Size Expansion and Functional Diversification.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Environmental effectiveness of the National Action Plan to Contain Antimicrobial Resistance: evidence from Chinese soil.National science review · 2026Article
- Geographical Variation in the Gut Microbiota ofEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Population dynamics of generalist and specialist strategies under feast-famine cycles.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Long-Term Preservation of Humid Earthen Sites: Shelter Efficacy, Essential Oil Dynamics, and Microbial Adaptation.Current microbiology · 2026Article
- Cooperation and the evolution of bacterial niche breadth.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The assembly of microbial communities on red sandstone surfaces was shaped by dispersal limitation and heterogeneous selection.mSystems · 2026Article
- Article
- Microbial Evolution and Systematics: Archaea and Bacteria.Progress in molecular and subcellular biology · 2026Review
- Microhabitat-specific restructuring of soil protist communities along a tropical land-use intensification gradient.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Functional gut microbiota dynamics of generalist and specialist bacteria in association with chicken growth.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Environmental quality affects the formation of generalist and specialist taxa in microbial communities.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Ecological constraints and evolutionary trade-offs shape nitrogen fixation across habitats.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Core rumen microbes are functional generalists that sustain host metabolism and gut ecosystem function.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Distribution patterns and community assembly processes of generalists and specialists in river affected by wastewater discharge from distilleries in typical Chinese spirits production area in China.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- One Health, One Microbiome.Microbiome · 2025Review
- Microeukaryotic habitat specialists exhibit stronger determinism and biodiversity-nutrient cycling relationship than generalists in a subtropical river.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
51 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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microbes form fundamental bases of every Earth ecosystem. As their key survival strategies, some microbes adapt to broad ranges of environments, while others specialize to certain habitats. While ecological roles and properties of such "generalists" and "specialists" had been examined in individual ecosystems, general principles that govern their distribution patterns and evolutionary processes have not been characterized. Here, we thoroughly identified microbial generalists and specialists across 61 environments via meta-analysis of community sequencing data sets and reconstructed their evolutionary histories across diverse microbial groups. This revealed that generalist lineages possess 19-fold higher speciation rates and significant persistence advantage over specialists. Yet, we also detected three-fold more frequent generalist-to-specialist transformations than the reverse transformations. These results support a model of microbial evolution in which generalists play key roles in introducing new species and maintaining taxonomic diversity.
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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.