Correction to: The ISME Journal (2013) 7, 2080–2090; doi:10.1038/ismej.2013.94; published online 13 June 2013

Since the publication of this article, the authors have noticed that one of the co-authors’ (Prof M Tuffin) is incorrectly affiliated to the following address: Department of Genetics, Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. The correct affiliation is shown above.

The Authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.