Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42029022›Full record

ReviewmSystems2026

Applying microbial ecology frameworks to microbial therapies for wildlife.

Sally L Bornbusch, Carly R Muletz-Wolz

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in mSystems, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Sally L BornbuschCenter for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-9996-8369
Carly R Muletz-WolzCenter for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5047-9601

Funding

National Science Foundation IOS-2131060National Science Foundation PRFB-2209096
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Microbial ecology is increasingly incorporated into human and animal medicine via the study and purposeful manipulation of host-associated microbiomes. Microbial therapies-treatments with the aim of beneficially modulating microbiomes-are a burgeoning area of research and industry. These microbial therapies include prebiotic dietary items, live probiotics, and whole microbiota transplants (e.g., fecal microbiota transplants). Although microbial therapies for humans and domestic animals are now widely produced for commercial use and application, evidence supporting the efficacy of commercial microbial therapies is mixed. We suggest that microbial therapies are most effective when paired with concepts from ecology and rigorous empirical research. This is particularly relevant for the development and use of microbial therapies in wildlife animal species, in which we see large-scale variation in microbial communities across hosts of varying ecologies. Identifying and developing microbial therapies that can simultaneously be accessible and effective in a variety of hosts poses a novel challenge for microbial ecologists, animal scientists, and human and animal medical professionals. In addition to pre- and probiotics, we suggest that whole microbiota transplants provide a method of microbial supplementation that may better align with species-specific microbial ecology. Moving forward, emerging methods used in human medicine such as machine learning, network analysis, and microbiome engineering using high-throughput culturomics will likely be key to identifying and applying functionally relevant (e.g., disease suppressive) microbial taxa for wildlife therapies.

Indexed as

Animals, WildMicrobiotaAnimalsEcologyFecal Microbiota TransplantationHumansPrebioticsProbioticsPrebioticsconservationecologyfecal microbiota transplantmicrobial ecologymicrobial therapymicrobiomeprobioticswildlife

Identifiers

PMID42029022
PMCPMC13185643

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.