ArticleThe ISME journal2021
The soil microbial food web revisited: Predatory myxobacteria as keystone taxa?
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 184 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Deep Darkness microbiome: functional and taxonomic diversity in an oligotrophic temperate cave.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Endophytic microbiota and metabolites profile in gynoecious versus monoecious cucumbers.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Seasonal thawing of high Arctic soils triggers selective microbial growth and predation.mSystems · 2026Article
- A predator-prey interaction between myxobacteria and fungi mediated by outer membrane vesicles.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Exogenous resources drive convergent successional processes within soil microbial food web in two soil types.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- Predator avoidance promotes inter-bacterial symbiosis with myxobacteria in polymicrobial communities.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Establishing conserved biosynthetic gene clusters of the phylum Myxococcota.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Predator avoidance promotes interbacterial symbiosis with myxobacteria in polymicrobial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Lives in a gram of soil: linking life cycle biology to soil ecology.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- From microbes to animals: a review on prey choice and prey-predator dynamics across organismal scales.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Biocontrol of watermelon Fusarium wilt caused byFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Summer drought impacts micropredator abundance and microbial food web structure in a rewetted fen peatland.ISME communications · 2026Article
- A microbiologist's field guide to community ecology.ISME communications · 2026Review
- Enrichment isolation and metabolic characteristics ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- From predation to function: how myxobacteria drive soil microbial community dynamics and ecological functions.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Review
- Perennial Kernza cropping promotes rhizosphere microbiome stability and endophyte recruitment compared to annual wheat.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Soil nutrient limitation controls trophic cascade effects of micro-food web-derived ecological functions in degraded agroecosystems.Journal of advanced research · 2025Article
- Quantifying Soil Microbiome Abundance by Metatranscriptomics and Complementary Molecular Techniques-Cross-Validation and Perspectives.Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Myxobacteria isolated from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS): ecology and significance as off-flavor producers.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
20 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
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Trophic interactions are crucial for carbon cycling in food webs. Traditionally, eukaryotic micropredators are considered the major micropredators of bacteria in soils, although bacteria like myxobacteria and Bdellovibrio are also known bacterivores. Until recently, it was impossible to assess the abundance of prokaryotes and eukaryotes in soil food webs simultaneously. Using metatranscriptomic three-domain community profiling we identified pro- and eukaryotic micropredators in 11 European mineral and organic soils from different climes. Myxobacteria comprised 1.5-9.7% of all obtained SSU rRNA transcripts and more than 60% of all identified potential bacterivores in most soils. The name-giving and well-characterized predatory bacteria affiliated with the Myxococcaceae were barely present, while Haliangiaceae and Polyangiaceae dominated. In predation assays, representatives of the latter showed prey spectra as broad as the Myxococcaceae. 18S rRNA transcripts from eukaryotic micropredators, like amoeba and nematodes, were generally less abundant than myxobacterial 16S rRNA transcripts, especially in mineral soils. Although SSU rRNA does not directly reflect organismic abundance, our findings indicate that myxobacteria could be keystone taxa in the soil microbial food web, with potential impact on prokaryotic community composition. Further, they suggest an overlooked, yet ecologically relevant food web module, independent of eukaryotic micropredators and subject to separate environmental and evolutionary pressures.
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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.