ArticleNature communications2020
Deciphering functional redundancy in the human microbiome.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 195 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
195 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 0 citations in OpenAlex.
- Socioeconomic position and the gut microbiota: a narrative synthesis of the association and recommendations.Gut microbes · 2026Pooled it
- Murine Gut Microbiome Meta-analysis Reveals Alterations in Carbohydrate Metabolism in Response to Aging.mSystems · 2022Pooled it
- High-throughput nucleotide sequencing for bacteriome studies in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review.Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
- Probiotic-induced enrichment ofGut microbes · 2025Trial
- Associations of Dietary Intake with the Intestinal Microbiota and Short-Chain Fatty Acids Among Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes and Overweight or Obesity.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Trial
- Host diets drive microbiome evolution and functional divergence.Genes & diseases · 2027Review
- Exercise intensity as a modulator of gut microbiota and host metabolic health in obesity.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- From gut dysbiosis to eubiosis: understanding microbiome recovery as an ecological process.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Why probiotics fail: gut niche tension as the missing variable?Gut microbes · 2026Review
- The role of gut microbiome in aging-associated diseases: where do we stand now and how technology will transform the future.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Maternal stress is associated with oral microbiota diversity patterns in pregnant women in Quito, Ecuador.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Stability of the Gut Microbiota in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis: A Prospective Observational Study.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- The Gut-Immune-Brain Axis in Aging: Integrating Immunosenescence, Inflammaging, and Neuroinflammation for Precision Medicine.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Gut metaproteomics reveals activated arginine catabolism and impaired arginine biosynthesis in systemic lupus erythematosus.mSystems · 2026Article
- Review
- Emergent function, not microbial conformity: functional redundancy and the limits of taxonomic inference in microbiome genomics.Microbial genomics · 2026Review
- Chemotherapy-driven gut microbiota remodeling in ovarian cancer: a prospective longitudinal study.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Microbial engraftment and immune regulation during fecal microbiota transplantation and immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Gut microbiota in health and disease.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
135 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
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Although the taxonomic composition of the human microbiome varies tremendously across individuals, its gene composition or functional capacity is highly conserved - implying an ecological property known as functional redundancy. Such functional redundancy has been hypothesized to underlie the stability and resilience of the human microbiome, but this hypothesis has never been quantitatively tested. The origin of functional redundancy is still elusive. Here, we investigate the basis for functional redundancy in the human microbiome by analyzing its genomic content network - a bipartite graph that links microbes to the genes in their genomes. We find that this network exhibits several topological features that favor high functional redundancy. Furthermore, we develop a simple genome evolution model to generate genomic content network, finding that moderate selection pressure and high horizontal gene transfer rate are necessary to generate genomic content networks with key topological features that favor high functional redundancy. Finally, we analyze data from two published studies of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), finding that high functional redundancy of the recipient's pre-FMT microbiota raises barriers to donor microbiota engraftment. This work elucidates the potential ecological and evolutionary processes that create and maintain functional redundancy in the human microbiome and contribute to its resilience.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.