ArticlePLoS biology2022
Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
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.
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Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Microbiome and One Health in GCC countries: current status, research gaps, and future directions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring the research progression and evolutionary trends of gut microbiome and hypertension: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Mapping the oral resistome: a systematic review.Journal of medical microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- COVID-19 alters human microbiomes: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- Maternal balanced energy-protein supplementation reshapes the maternal gut microbiome and enhances carbohydrate metabolism in infants: a randomized controlled trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Gut microbiomes of tribal communities in India vary with dairy and grain consumption.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Eukaryotic and bacterial gut communities vary along a lifestyle-associated urbanization gradient: comparative analysis of Germany and Madagascar.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Article
- Global and local trajectories of infant gut microbiota development in Bangladesh across the COVID-19 pandemic.mSystems · 2026Article
- Gut archaea drive human MAIT cell responses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Reporting and representation of population descriptors in public RNA-seq databases.Cell genomics · 2026Article
- Resistome and microbiome-immune interactions in an Eastern European population with high antibiotic use.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Mechanism-Driven Diagnostic Development: A Specimen-Aware Framework Illustrated by Colorectal Cancer and Solid Tumours.Cancers · 2026Review
- Global analysis of infant gut microbiota revealed distinctive maturation dynamics across lifestyles.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Emerging trends in the global burden of colorectal cancer.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- Translational human gut microbiome research: What are the missing pieces of the puzzle?Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Short-Chain Fatty Acids: Bridging Gut Microbiota and Systemic Aging-Mechanisms, Interventions, and Current Challenges.Metabolites · 2026Review
- A review of computational approaches for metagenomics by long-read sequencing.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Comparative Analysis of Gut Microbiota Patterns in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Anxiety, and Autoimmune Disorders.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Large-scale estimation of bacterial and archaeal DNA prevalence in metagenomes reveals biome-specific patterns.mSystems · 2026Article
70 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
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The importance of sampling from globally representative populations has been well established in human genomics. In human microbiome research, however, we lack a full understanding of the global distribution of sampling in research studies. This information is crucial to better understand global patterns of microbiome-associated diseases and to extend the health benefits of this research to all populations. Here, we analyze the country of origin of all 444,829 human microbiome samples that are available from the world's 3 largest genomic data repositories, including the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). The samples are from 2,592 studies of 19 body sites, including 220,017 samples of the gut microbiome. We show that more than 71% of samples with a known origin come from Europe, the United States, and Canada, including 46.8% from the US alone, despite the country representing only 4.3% of the global population. We also find that central and southern Asia is the most underrepresented region: Countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh account for more than a quarter of the world population but make up only 1.8% of human microbiome samples. These results demonstrate a critical need to ensure more global representation of participants in microbiome studies.
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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.