ArticleNature ecology & evolution2020
Short-range interactions govern the dynamics and functions of microbial communities.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 150 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
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Who cites it
150 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spatial constraints determine the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance between bacterial colonies.mSystems · 2026Article
- Programming Bio-Bio Electronic Interfaces for Light-Driven Interspecies Electron Transfer.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Metabolic Modelling Facilitates the Design of Synthetic Communities by Simplifying Natural Microbial Communities.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Metabolic feedbacks drive population dynamics and can lead to oscillations among leaf bacteria.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Emergent spatial structure in the gut microbiota is driven by bacterial growth and gut contractions.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Controlling spatial structure in minimal microbial communities by sequential capillary assembly.Lab on a chip · 2026Article
- A Concept Using α-Niche Evolution Within Bacterial Communities to Direct β-Niche Evolution of Focal Species.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Lives in a gram of soil: linking life cycle biology to soil ecology.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Influence of cell-cell distance on the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Sensitivity of microbial spatial self-organization to surface friction depends on metabolic interactions.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Small-scale biogeography of biofilms and its implications for sequencing-based studies.ISME communications · 2026Article
- A microbiologist's field guide to community ecology.ISME communications · 2026Review
- Potential contribution of microbial interaction to stochasticity of microbiota assembly.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Simultaneous real-time imaging of oxygen gradients and in vivo microbial community spatial organization in confined environments.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Higher levels of antibiotic resistance are less competitive: the hidden ecological cost of no-metabolic cost resistance.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Slower-growing species promote interspecific cooperation and coexistence under acid stress through cross-feeding.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Understanding the development of bacterial colony: Physiology, new technology, and modeling.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2025Review
90 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Communities of interacting microorganisms play important roles across all habitats on Earth. These communities typically consist of a large number of species that perform different metabolic processes. The functions of microbial communities ultimately emerge from interactions between these different microorganisms. To understand the dynamics and functions of microbial communities, we thus need to know the nature and strength of these interactions. Here, we quantified the interaction strength between individual cells in microbial communities. We worked with synthetic communities of Escherichia coli bacteria that exchange metabolites to grow. We combined single-cell growth rate measurements with mathematical modelling to quantify metabolic interactions between individual cells and to map the spatial interaction network in these communities. We found that cells only interact with other cells in their immediate neighbourhood. This short interaction range limits the coupling between different species and reduces their ability to perform metabolic processes collectively. Our experiments and models demonstrate that the spatial scale of biotic interaction plays a fundamental role in shaping the ecological dynamics of communities and the functioning of ecosystems.
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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.