ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2020
Microbiome-mediated plasticity directs host evolution along several distinct time scales.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 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
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dietary Utilization Drives the Differentiation of Gut Bacterial Communities between Specialist and Generalist Drosophilid Flies.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Pooled it
- Omnidirectional Interaction Networks Modulating Phenotypic Plasticity in the Gut Microbiota Towards Ulcerative Colitis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Consistent root microbiomes across contrasting habitats in a wild perennial vine.Plant biology (Stuttgart, Germany) · 2026Article
- Crosstalk in the cold: host-microbe interactions in insect diapause.Annals of the Entomological Society of America · 2026Review
- Timescale mismatch: redefining ecological opportunity for evolution in the Anthropocene.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Changes to Skin Microbiome Community Dynamics Support Resistance to Enzootic and Epizootic Strains of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in the Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum).Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Diet change reveals asymmetric response in gene expression and microbial composition across the digestive tract of two closely related herbivores.BMC biology · 2026Article
- The island biology of the host microbiome.Trends in microbiology · 2026Review
- Climate Change, Epigenetics, Microbiota, and Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Marine Heatwaves, Ocean Warming and Acidification Reshape Reef Fish Gut Microbiomes.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals.Molecular ecology · 2026Review
- Metatranscriptomic analyses of gut bacterial and viral communities in the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) under distinct environments.Animal microbiome · 2026Article
- Article
- Gut microbiome plasticity and host resistance in response to ocean warming in sub-Antarctic sea urchins.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Seasonal and spatial dynamics of the microbiome of the polychaete Lanice conchilega in the Wadden Sea.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Selection and transmission of the gut microbiome alone can shift mammalian behavior.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Applying evolutionary theory to understand host-microbiome evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Review
- Adaptation and Plasticity ofEvolutionary applications · 2025Article
- Mutualism Mediates Legume Response to Microbial Climate Legacies.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Within-host microbial selection and multiple microbial generations buffer the loss of host fitness under environmental change.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
2 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
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Host-associated microbiomes influence their host's fitness in myriad ways and can be viewed as a source of phenotypic plasticity. This plasticity may allow the host to accommodate novel environmental challenges and thus influence the host's evolutionary adaptation. As with other modalities of phenotypic plasticity in phenomena such as the Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation, the microbiome-mediated plasticity may influence host genetic adaptation by facilitating and accelerating it, by slowing it down, or even by preventing it. The dynamics involved are likely more complex than those of previously studied phenomena related to phenotypic plasticity, and involve different processes on each time scale, such as acquired recognition of newly associated microbes by the host's immune system on single- and multiple-generation time scales, or selection on transmission dynamics of microbes between hosts, acting on longer time scales. To date, it is unclear if and how any of these processes shape host evolution. This opinion piece article provides a conceptual framework for considering the processes by which microbiome-mediated plasticity directs host evolution and concludes with suggestions for key experimental tests of the presented ideas. This article is part of the theme issue 'The role of the microbiome in host evolution'.
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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.