Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome: [Plus]Corrigendum [Plus]Addendum

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Arumugam, Mani
  • Jeroen Raes
  • Eric Pelletier
  • Denis Le Paslier
  • Takuji Yamada
  • Daniel R Mende
  • Gabriel R Fernandes
  • Julien Tap
  • Thomas Bruls
  • Jean-Michel Batto
  • Marcelo Bertalan Quintanilha dos Santos
  • Natalia Borruel
  • Francesc Casellas
  • Leyden Fernandez
  • Laurent Gautier
  • Hansen, Torben
  • Masahira Hattori
  • Tetsuya Hayashi
  • Michiel Kleerebezem
  • Ken Kurokawa
  • Marion Leclerc
  • Florence Levenez
  • Chaysavanh Manichanh
  • H Bjørn Nielsen
  • Trine Nielsen
  • Nicolas Pons
  • Julie Poulain
  • Junjie Qin
  • Thomas Sicheritz-Ponten
  • Sebastian Tims
  • David Torrents
  • Edgardo Ugarte
  • Erwin G Zoetendal
  • Jun Wang
  • Francisco Guarner
  • Pedersen, Oluf Borbye
  • Willem M de Vos
  • Brunak, Søren
  • Joel Doré
  • María Antolín
  • François Artiguenave
  • Hervé M Blottiere
  • Mathieu Almeida
  • Christian Brechot
  • Carlos Cara
  • Christian Chervaux
  • Antonella Cultrone
  • Christine Delorme
  • Gérard Denariaz
  • Kristiansen, Karsten
  • MetaHIT Consortium
Our knowledge of species and functional composition of the human gut microbiome is rapidly increasing, but it is still based on very few cohorts and little is known about variation across the world. By combining 22 newly sequenced faecal metagenomes of individuals from four countries with previously published data sets, here we identify three robust clusters (referred to as enterotypes hereafter) that are not nation or continent specific. We also confirmed the enterotypes in two published, larger cohorts, indicating that intestinal microbiota variation is generally stratified, not continuous. This indicates further the existence of a limited number of well-balanced host-microbial symbiotic states that might respond differently to diet and drug intake. The enterotypes are mostly driven by species composition, but abundant molecular functions are not necessarily provided by abundant species, highlighting the importance of a functional analysis to understand microbial communities. Although individual host properties such as body mass index, age, or gender cannot explain the observed enterotypes, data-driven marker genes or functional modules can be identified for each of these host properties. For example, twelve genes significantly correlate with age and three functional modules with the body mass index, hinting at a diagnostic potential of microbial markers.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNature
Volume473
Issue number7346
Pages (from-to)174-180
Number of pages7
ISSN0028-0836
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Research areas

  • Bacteria, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Biodiversity, Biological Markers, Europe, Feces, Female, Humans, Intestines, Male, Metagenome, Metagenomics, Phylogeny

ID: 35314622