ArticleNature microbiology2026
Obligate cross-feeding of metabolites is common in soil microbial communities.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cross-feeding enables robust coexistence between four bacterial species.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Genomic characteristics and geographical distribution of uncultivated soil prokaryotes.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Increased nutrient diversity can induce loss of microbial diversity through enhanced resource uptake.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Reciprocal cross-feeding between bacteria can limit the emergence of metabolic dependencies.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Microbial model communities exhibit widespread metabolic interdependencies.Communications biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Ecological theory predicts that obligate cross-feeding of metabolites is common in microbial communities. However, systematic studies testing this prediction in natural microbial communities such as soil are missing, thus hindering the understanding of these ecologically important ecosystems. Here we address this gap by analysing 6,931 bacterial isolates from 27 soil microbial communities sampled in Germany. We find that the growth of up to 50% of community members depended on supplementation with amino acids, vitamins or nucleobases. For 73% of isolates, supplementation with multiple amino acids was necessary. Genomic analysis of 62 strains revealed that accumulation of insertion sequences and gene loss was associated with the observed auxotrophic phenotypes. Genome-scale metabolic models, computational analyses and cocultivation experiments suggest other co-occurring genotypes complement the metabolic needs of auxotrophs, thus enabling their growth and survival. Together, our results indicate that soil bacteria probably exist within integrated metabolic networks rather than as metabolically autonomous units.
Indexed as
Identifiers
42637887What 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.