ArticleNature ecology & evolution2022
Natural selection for imprecise vertical transmission in host-microbiota systems.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2022. 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 36 papers.
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
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- Does Mother Provide? Re-Examination of Maternal and Embryonic Microbiomes ofEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Not All Children Are the Same: Differences in the Microbiome Assembly During Early Development of Seaweeds.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- The bacterial march toward symbiosis: on-ramps and off-ramps.Trends in microbiology · 2026Review
- Host-Dependent Endophytes as a Resilient Biological Reservoir: Niche-Specific Expansion and Holobiont Reassembly in Grapevine.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Multilevel selection in multitype populations.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Climate variability disrupts microbial mutualism-driven population persistence.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Leaffooted bugs enrich local soil with their horizontally acquired symbiont.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Late is not great: fitness implications of delayed symbiont acquisition.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Plasticity in climate change responses.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Quantitative genetics of microbiome-mediated traits.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2025Article
- Applying evolutionary theory to understand host-microbiome evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Review
- Within-host microbial selection and multiple microbial generations buffer the loss of host fitness under environmental change.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota-mediated lipid accumulation as a driver of evolutionary adaptation to blue light toxicity in Drosophila.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Bacterial communities of fungus-growing ant queens are species-specific and suggest vertical transmission.PloS one · 2025Article
- Genetics, age, and diet influence gut bacterial communities and performance of black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens).Animal microbiome · 2024Article
- The marine environmental microbiome mediates physiological outcomes in host nematodes.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Symbiont community assembly shaped by insecticide exposure and feedback on insecticide resistance of Spodoptera frugiperda.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Long-distance movement dynamics shape host microbiome richness and turnover.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2024Article
- Tolerance to environmental pollution in the freshwater crustacean Asellus aquaticus: A role for the microbiome.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
How and when the microbiome modulates host adaptation remains an evolutionary puzzle, despite evidence that the extended genetic repertoire of the microbiome can shape host phenotypes and fitness. One complicating factor is that the microbiome is often transmitted imperfectly across host generations, leading to questions about the degree to which the microbiome contributes to host adaptation. Here, using an evolutionary model, we demonstrate that decreasing vertical transmission fidelity can increase microbiome variation, and thus phenotypic variation, across hosts. When the most beneficial microbial genotypes change unpredictably from one generation to the next (for example, in variable environments), hosts can maximize fitness by increasing the microbiome variation among offspring, as this improves the chance of there being an offspring with the right microbial combination for the next generation. Imperfect vertical transmission can therefore be adaptive in varying environments. We characterize how selection on vertical transmission is shaped by environmental conditions, microbiome changes during host development and the contribution of other factors to trait variation. We illustrate how environmentally dependent microbial effects can favour intermediate transmission and set our results in the context of examples from natural systems. We also suggest research avenues to empirically test our predictions. Our model provides a basis to understand the evolutionary pathways that potentially led to the wide diversity of microbe transmission patterns found in nature.
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.