Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31216282›Full record

ArticlePLoS biology2019

Neutrality in the Metaorganism.

Michael Sieber, Lucía Pita, Nancy Weiland-Bräuer, Philipp Dirksen, Jun Wang, Benedikt Mortzfeld, Sören Franzenburg, Ruth A Schmitz, John F Baines, Sebastian Fraune and 4 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
64citing papers in PubMed
–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

64 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. The island biology of the host microbiome.Trends in microbiology · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
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  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

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

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

Michael SieberMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2703-3665
Lucía PitaGEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany.
Nancy Weiland-BräuerInstitute for General Microbiology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8284-1222
Philipp DirksenMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Jun WangInstitute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China.
Benedikt MortzfeldZoological Institute, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-0563-8970
Sören FranzenburgInstitute for Clinical Molecular Biology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-6374-4910
Ruth A SchmitzInstitute for General Microbiology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
John F BainesMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Sebastian FrauneZoological Institute, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
Ute HentschelGEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany.
Hinrich SchulenburgMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.
Thomas C G BoschZoological Institute, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
Arne TraulsenMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-0669-5267

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Almost all animals and plants are inhabited by diverse communities of microorganisms, the microbiota, thereby forming an integrated entity, the metaorganism. Natural selection should favor hosts that shape the community composition of these microbes to promote a beneficial host-microbe symbiosis. Indeed, animal hosts often pose selective environments, which only a subset of the environmentally available microbes are able to colonize. How these microbes assemble after colonization to form the complex microbiota is less clear. Neutral models are based on the assumption that the alternatives in microbiota community composition are selectively equivalent and thus entirely shaped by random population dynamics and dispersal. Here, we use the neutral model as a null hypothesis to assess microbiata composition in host organisms, which does not rely on invoking any adaptive processes underlying microbial community assembly. We show that the overall microbiota community structure from a wide range of host organisms, in particular including previously understudied invertebrates, is in many cases consistent with neutral expectations. Our approach allows to identify individual microbes that are deviating from the neutral expectation and are therefore interesting candidates for further study. Moreover, using simulated communities, we demonstrate that transient community states may play a role in the deviations from the neutral expectation. Our findings highlight that the consideration of neutral processes and temporal changes in community composition are critical for an in-depth understanding of microbiota-host interactions.

Indexed as

MicrobiotaAnimalsHumansModels, TheoreticalPlantsSymbiosis

Identifiers

PMID31216282
PMCPMC6583948

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.