Which enterotype are you: Bacteroides, Prevotella, or Ruminococcus?
Wait, you ask. What the heck is an enterotype? You’ve likely heard of blood types and may even know your own. Someday, you may also know your gut type. Researchers in an international consortium including Jeroen Raes of the Flanders Institute of Biology in Brussels, Belgium, have used human poop samples to classify people into three categories of enterotypes, or bacterial ecosystems.
Yes, you read that right. You’re an ecosystem. One of three possible types. Of all the DNA we carry around, about 1% of it is human. The other DNA belongs to the 100,000 billion microbes that hang out in our gut, among other places. Many are bacteria that take advantage of the protection and food we offer them while making vitamins or metabolites we might find handy. Yet even though these microbes number in the trillions, this research shows that they fall into only three distinct gut types, even fewer classifications than the familiar four blood types.
Just so everyone knows, even though we have more bacterial cells in our bodies than human cells, the bacterial cells are extremely tiny compared to human cells. By mass, the vast majority of the human body is composed of actual human cells.
Apr 25, 2011 @ 21:52:10
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