European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
VIB Center for Microbiology, VIB, Belgium.
Nat Microbiol. 2018 Jan;3(1):8-16. doi: 10.1038/s41564-017-0072-8. Epub 2017 Dec 18.
Population stratification is a useful approach for a better understanding of complex biological problems in human health and wellbeing. The proposal that such stratification applies to the human gut microbiome, in the form of distinct community composition types termed enterotypes, has been met with both excitement and controversy. In view of accumulated data and re-analyses since the original work, we revisit the concept of enterotypes, discuss different methods of dividing up the landscape of possible microbiome configurations, and put these concepts into functional, ecological and medical contexts. As enterotypes are of use in describing the gut microbial community landscape and may become relevant in clinical practice, we aim to reconcile differing views and encourage a balanced application of the concept.
人群分层是更好地理解人类健康和福祉中复杂生物学问题的一种有效方法。有人提出,这种分层适用于人类肠道微生物组,其形式是被称为肠型的不同群落组成类型,这一观点既令人兴奋,也引起了争议。鉴于原始研究工作以来积累的数据和重新分析,我们重新审视肠型的概念,讨论划分可能的微生物组配置景观的不同方法,并将这些概念置于功能、生态和医学背景下。由于肠型可用于描述肠道微生物群落景观,并且可能在临床实践中具有相关性,因此我们旨在调和不同的观点,并鼓励平衡应用这一概念。