ReviewNature microbiology2025
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies.
Review in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
112 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Noninvasive microbiota-based diagnostic models for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a systematic review and diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Modulation of the response to immunotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: the role of the microbiota and microbial metabolites in the tumor microenvironment.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- The role of the respiratory microbiome in acute and chronic respiratory diseases.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The Microbiome in Glioblastoma: Mechanisms, Tumor-Immune Interactions, and Translational Perspectives.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Review
- Promising Urinary Microbiome Signals in Congenital Anomalies of Kidney and Urinary Tract, but not yet Ready for Clinical Risk Stratification.Kidney international reports · 2026Article
- Review
- Piezophilic activity dominates the Puerto Rico Trench deep subseafloor biosphere.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Response to the Letter to the Editor Entitled "Promising Urinary Microbiome Signals in Congenital Anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract, but not yet Ready for Clinical Risk Stratification".Kidney international reports · 2026Article
- Exploring Gut Microbiota Composition and Occurrence of Selected Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Domestic Pigs and Urban and Sylvatic Wild Boars from Sicily.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Decoding the cancer microbiome: multi-omics, AI, and translational opportunities.Genome biology · 2026Review
- Advancing the Deciphering of Host-Microbe Crosstalk with Spatial Omics: A Mini-Review.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Urinary microbiome in renal transplant patients with BK polyomavirus reactivation.Journal of medical microbiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Microbiome and chronic pelvic pain in women: a mini-review.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2026Review
- Review
- The diagnostic potential of combined quantitative polymerase chain reaction and next-generation sequencing using the same primers for periprosthetic joint infection.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Mitochondria Meet the Lung Microbiome: A Bidirectional Dialogue in Inflammation and Respiratory Diseases.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- An endocrine microbe immunity framework for granulomatous mastitis toward phenotype-oriented interpretation.iScience · 2026Review
- Beyond Bacteria: The Emerging Role of the Gut Virome and Mycobiome in Celiac Disease.Nutrients · 2026Review
- An ode to the 16S rRNA gene: its history, importance, caveats and future in microbiome research.Microbial genomics · 2026Review
52 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
30 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Numerous important environments harbour low levels of microbial biomass, including certain human tissues, the atmosphere, plant seeds, treated drinking water, hyper-arid soils and the deep subsurface, with some environments lacking resident microbes altogether. These low microbial biomass environments pose unique challenges for standard DNA-based sequencing approaches, as the inevitability of contamination from external sources becomes a critical concern when working near the limits of detection. Likewise, lower-biomass samples can be disproportionately impacted by cross-contamination and practices suitable for handling higher-biomass samples may produce misleading results when applied to lower microbial biomass samples. This Consensus Statement outlines strategies to reduce contamination and cross-contamination, focusing on marker gene and metagenomic analyses. We also provide minimal standards for reporting contamination information and removal workflows. Considerations must be made at every study stage, from sample collection and handling through data analysis and reporting to reduce and identify contaminants. We urge researchers to adopt these recommendations when designing, implementing and reporting microbiome studies, especially those conducted in low-biomass systems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
40542287What 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.