ReviewMicrobial biotechnology2020
Problems with the concept of gut microbiota dysbiosis.
Review in Microbial biotechnology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 137 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
137 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Bibliometric analysis of human microbiota-associated animal model (2005-2025).Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Anorexia nervosa and microbiota: systematic review and critical appraisal.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2023Pooled it
- Guideline
- Gut microbiota in early and established stages of rheumatoid arthritis: from pathogenesis to promising prevention and treatment.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- The gut microbiota in malnutrition.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Interpreting oral microbiome research in clinical dentistry: terminology, limitations and clinical implications.British dental journal · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota in health and disease.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Clinical Significance of Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth: Integrating the Gut Mycobiome into Modern Gastroenterology.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Exploratory analysis of gut microbiota and its association with peripheral blood immune cell populations in canine myxomatous mitral valve disease.BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
- Nervonic Acid Prevents HFD-Induced Metabolic Dysfunction and Is Associated with Gut Microbiota Remodeling.Metabolites · 2026Article
- Deterministic assembly of rhizosphere bacterial community enables predictable and stable suppression of Verticillium wilt via microbial homeostasis.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Current Perspectives on the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Pathogenesis of Microbiota and the Gut-Brain Axis, and Emerging Therapeutics.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Challenges associate with microbiome diversity, glucocorticoids, and condition in a wild songbird.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The gut-heart axis in atrial fibrillation: Pathophysiology, evidence, and therapeutic potential.Heart rhythm O2 · 2026Review
- Early-Life β-Lactam Exposure and the Developing Microbiome: Clinical Relevance and Controversies.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Antibiotic: a boon to mankind and doom to the environment - an insight on biological and non-biological degradation processes.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- The hallmarks of host-microbiome decoupling.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Host traits and environmental factors shape infection heterogeneity in wild rat-protozoa networks.ISME communications · 2026Article
- A Review of Global Patterns in Gut Microbiota Composition, Health and Disease: Locating South Africa in the Conversation.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Too hot for my bugs: mediterranean heatwave disrupts associated microbiomes in the sponge Petrosia ficiformis.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
77 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
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The human microbiome research is with the notable exception of fecal transplantation still mostly in a descriptive phase. Part of the difficulty for translating research into medical interventions is due to the large compositional complexity of the microbiome resulting in datasets that need sophisticated statistical methods for their analysis and do not lend to industrial applications. Another part of the difficulty might be due to logical flaws in terminology particularly concerning 'dysbiosis' that avoids circular conclusions and is based on sound ecological and evolutionary reasoning. Many case-control studies are underpowered necessitating more meta-analyses that sort out consistent from spurious dysbiosis-disease associations. We also need for the microbiome a transition from statistical associations to causal relationships with diseases that fulfil a set of modified Koch's postulates for commensals. Disturbingly, the most sophisticated statistical analyses explain only a small percentage of the variance in the microbiome. Microbe-microbe interactions irrelevant to the host and stochastic processes might play a greater role than anticipated. To satisfy the concept of Karl Popper about conjectures and refutations in the scientific process, we should also conduct more experiments that try to refute the role of the commensal gut microbiota for human health and disease.
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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.