ArticleNature communications2018
Gut microbiomes of wild great apes fluctuate seasonally in response to diet.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 146 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.
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Who cites it
146 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Partner fidelity, not geography, drives co-diversification of gut microbiota with hominids.Biology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Pilot study of probiotic/colostrum supplementation on gut function in children with autism and gastrointestinal symptoms.PloS one · 2019Trial
- Animal gut microbes and microbiomes in the 21st century and beyond.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Stop codon reassignment to tryptophan in members of the bacterial phylumMicrobial genomics · 2026Article
- Temporal variations in the gut microbiota of François' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi): implications for adaptation to seasonal dietary change and conservation.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- The Importance of Sociality and Diet in Explaining Variation in the Bonobo Gut Microbiota.American journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Timing Is Everything: The Effect of Exposure to Pollution on Wildlife Gut Microbiota Is Contingent on Season.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Social Structure and Interactions Differentially Shape Aerotolerant and Anaerobic Gut Microbiomes in a Cooperative Breeding Species.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Temporal variability is an inherent feature of the healthy canine microbiome assessed by full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Spatioseasonal Comparison of Fecal Resistome and Pathogenome of Raccoon Dogs in Korea.EcoHealth · 2026Article
- Article
- Comparative analysis of gut microbiota and host phenotypic characteristics across enterotype-like clusters in cynomolgus and rhesus macaques.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Seasonal dynamics of gut microbiota in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from western Sichuan Plateau and their adaptability to high altitude climate change.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Marmot gut microbiomes are stable against dietary variation.Oecologia · 2025Article
- You are what your fungus eats: diet shapes the microbial garden of a fungus-growing ant.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Diet, nutrient characteristics and gut microbiome between summer and winter drive adaptive strategies of East China sika deer (Cervus nippon kopschi) in the Yangtze River basin.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Seasonal Adaptation of the Gut Microbiome in Japanese Macaques: Linking Gut Microbiome Shifts With Fermentative Function.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Bacterial indicators of environmental stress in the gut microbiome of free-ranging European roe deer inhabiting agricultural landscapes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Distribution and prevalence ofJournal of medical microbiology · 2025Article
86 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
Abstract
The microbiome is essential for extraction of energy and nutrition from plant-based diets and may have facilitated primate adaptation to new dietary niches in response to rapid environmental shifts. Here we use 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbiota of wild western lowland gorillas and sympatric central chimpanzees and demonstrate compositional divergence between the microbiotas of gorillas, chimpanzees, Old World monkeys, and modern humans. We show that gorilla and chimpanzee microbiomes fluctuate with seasonal rainfall patterns and frugivory. Metagenomic sequencing of gorilla microbiomes demonstrates distinctions in functional metabolic pathways, archaea, and dietary plants among enterotypes, suggesting that dietary seasonality dictates shifts in the microbiome and its capacity for microbial plant fiber digestion versus growth on mucus glycans. These data indicate that great ape microbiomes are malleable in response to dietary shifts, suggesting a role for microbiome plasticity in driving dietary flexibility, which may provide fundamental insights into the mechanisms by which diet has driven the evolution of human gut microbiomes.
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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.