ArticleEcology letters2025
Central Taxa Are Keystone Microbes During Early Succession.
Article in Ecology letters, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Soilless farming system design impacts the diversity and composition of microbiota.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacterial Communities Associated withMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Effects of Timing of Microbial Exposure on Microbiome Assembly and Amphibian Immune Development.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The precisely regulated keystone taxa facilitate microbial mineralization of soil organic phosphorus via niche partitioning.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Rhizosphere Functional Plasticity and the Keystone TaxonPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Keystone concept revisited: insights into microbial community dynamics and control.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Phyllosphere Keystone Beneficial Specialists Enhance Yield in Nutrient Deficiency-Resistant Sorghum Cultivars.Plant, cell & environment · 2026Article
- The Role of the Environmental Microbiome in Modulating the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Succession of Cyanobacterial Community Contributes to Bacterial and Fungal Community Assembly in Dryland Biocrusts.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Reintroduction of Grassland Plant Species Shapes Soil Bacterial Ecological Groups and Contributes Differently To Bacterial Diversity.Microbial ecology · 2026Article
- The core microbiome of the AMF hyphosphere: mineralization mechanisms of key soil mineral elements.Mycorrhiza · 2026Review
- Environmental Heterogeneity Drives Distinct Spatial Distribution Patterns of Microbial Co-Occurring Species Across Different Grassland Types.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Evolutionary mechanisms underlying bacterial adaptation to the plant environment.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Unraveling complexity in climate change effects on beneficial plant-microbe interactions: mechanisms, resilience, and future directions.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- Advancing the study of microbial symbionts of amphibians and reptiles.Frontiers in amphibian and reptile science · 2026Article
- Article
- Microbes in reconstructive restoration: Divergence in constructed and natural tree island soil fungi affects tree growth.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Succession characteristics and assembly process of soil microbiome at reclaimed farmlands in coal mining area.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Increased vegetation disturbance intensity reduces soil nutrients while enhancing microbial network interactions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Engineering the plant microbiome: synthetic community approaches to enhance crop protection.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Microorganisms underpin numerous ecosystem processes and support biodiversity globally. Yet, we understand surprisingly little about what structures environmental microbiomes, including how to efficiently identify key players. Microbiome network theory predicts that highly connected hubs act as keystones, but this has never been empirically tested in nature. Combining culturing, sequencing, networks and field experiments, we isolated 'central' (highly connected, hub taxa), 'intermediate' (moderately connected), and 'peripheral' (weakly/unconnected) microbes and experimentally evaluated their effects on soil microbiome assembly during early succession in nature. Central early colonisers significantly (1) enhanced biodiversity (35%-40% richer communities), (2) reshaped trajectories of microbiome assembly and (3) increased recruitment of additional influential microbes by > 60%. In contrast, peripheral microbes did not increase diversity and were transient taxa, minimally affected by the presence of other microbes. This work elucidates fundamental principles of network theory in microbial ecology and demonstrates for the first time in nature that central microbes act as keystone taxa.
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