ReviewNPJ biofilms and microbiomes2018
Evolutionary conservation of the antimicrobial function of mucus: a first defence against infection.
Review in NPJ biofilms and microbiomes, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 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
73 citing papers in PubMed, 156 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Induced Dysbiosis Modifies Physiological Responses to Warming in a Temperate Sponge.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Behavioral and Exumbrellar Integumental Defenses in Jellyfish: The Hydromedusan Spirocodon saltatrix Releases Oxidized Derivatives of Unsaturated Fatty Acids Potentially to Avoid Predation and Bacterial Biofouling.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Coral Mucus Microbial Community Change and Resistant Strategy Under UV Radiation: A Case fromMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Investigating human lung resilience, its evolutionary history and its relation to COPD.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2026Review
- It's not just snot! : Mucus: Nature's Multifaceted Secretion.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Clues to Long COVID Linked to Virulence and Infectivity Found in Shell Proteins.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2026Review
- Mucus fishing syndrome: clinical spectrum and update on its multifactorial pathogenic mechanisms.International ophthalmology · 2026Observational
- Silver nanoparticles at sub-cytotoxic levels increase enteric pathogen invasion by compromising intestinal epithelial barrier integrity.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Coral larvae have unique transcriptomic responses to pathogenic and probiotic bacteria.Coral reefs (Online) · 2026Article
- The Power of MUC2 in Mucinous Adenocarcinomas.Pathobiology : journal of immunopathology, molecular and cellular biology · 2026Review
- Jellyfish mucus-derived organic matter as a source of labile nutrients for the ambient microbial community.PeerJ · 2026Article
- Article
- Combined Effect of Size and Charge on the Interaction of Nanoparticles with Mucus-Mimicking Mucin Hydrogels.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- NFAT5 dictates crosstalk between intestinal epithelial regenerative capacity and microbiota in murine colitis models.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Article
- Galectin-3: a novel antimicrobial host factor identified in goat nasal mucus.Veterinary research · 2025Article
- Open-source, three-dimensionally printed manifolds for exposure studies using human airway epithelial cells.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Recent Advancements in Marine Collagen: Exploring New Sources, Processing Approaches, and Nutritional Applications.Marine drugs · 2025Review
- Mucosal-adapted bacteriophages as a preventive strategy for a lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge in mice.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Placozoan secretory cell types implicated in feeding, innate immunity and regulation of behavior.PloS one · 2025Article
13 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
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mucus layers often provide a unique and multi-functional hydrogel interface between the epithelial cells of organisms and their external environment. Mucus has exceptional properties including elasticity, changeable rheology and an ability to self-repair by re-annealing, and is therefore an ideal medium for trapping and immobilising pathogens and serving as a barrier to microbial infection. The ability to produce a functional surface mucosa was an important evolutionary step, which evolved first in the Cnidaria, which includes corals, and the Ctenophora. This allowed the exclusion of non-commensal microbes and the subsequent development of the mucus-lined digestive cavity seen in higher metazoans. The fundamental architecture of the constituent glycoprotein mucins is also evolutionarily conserved. Although an understanding of the biochemical interactions between bacteria and the mucus layer are important to the goal of developing new antimicrobial strategies, they remain relatively poorly understood. This review summarises the physicochemical properties and evolutionary importance of mucus, which make it so successful in the prevention of bacterial infection. In addition, the strategies developed by bacteria to counteract the mucus layer are also explored.
Identifiers
What Socratic 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 Socratic graph.