ReviewNature reviews. Microbiology2026
Keystone concept revisited: insights into microbial community dynamics and control.
Review in Nature reviews. Microbiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 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
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gut microbial diversity and candidate keystone taxa in Indian tribes: Insights across lifestyle-ecological continuum and health associations.Current research in microbial sciences · 2026Article
- Hydrological Regime Shifts Reshape Assembly Dynamics of Multi-Trophic Microbial Communities in Pumping Station Forebays.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Stress-Driven Accelerated Evolution and Ecological Network Reconfiguration in Extremophilic Microbial Communities.Biology · 2026Review
- Dynamical Systems-Constrained Metabolic Modeling Enables Forecasting of Host-Microbiome Dynamics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Omics-Guided Construction of Microbial Consortia for Reproducible Traditional Fermented Foods and Beverages.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Regulatory effects of lavender varieties on rhizosphere soil properties and fungal community structure and function in semi-arid regions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Mixed-species biofilms in food systems: from community assembly to ecology-informed management.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- A microbiologist's field guide to community ecology.ISME communications · 2026Review
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Different definitions of keystone taxa and functions agree that they have an outsized role in maintaining community composition, and thus, the keystone concept continues to attract attention even 50 years after its introduction. In this Perspective, we base our definition of microbial keystones on the original one to explore its implications and limitations. We review different mechanisms behind keystoneness, cover the strengths and weaknesses of current keystone prediction methods and present findings on keystones discovered in recent experiments. In addition, we suggest a new prediction method for keystones based on metabolic modelling. Finally, we discuss the role of keystones in community control strategies. Overall, the development of new prediction methods and the insights from recent experiments illustrate the continued relevance of the keystone concept for microbial communities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41478866What 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.