In 2011, the term “enterotype” first appeared to the general public in Nature, which refers to stratification of human gut microbiota. However, with more studies on enterotypes conducted nowadays, doubts about the existence and robustness of enterotypes have also emerged. Here we reviewed current opinions about enterotypes from both conceptual and analytical points of view. We firstly illustrated the definition of the enterotype and various factors influencing enterotypes, such as diet, administration of antibiotics, and age. Then we summarized lines of evidence that pose the concept against the enterotype, and described the current methods for enterotype analysis. Finally, we showed that the concept of enterotype has been extended to other ecological niches. Based on current studies on enterotypes, it has been clear that more studies with larger sample sizes are needed to characterize the enterotypes. Improved computational methods are also required to build sophisticated models, reflecting the dynamics and resilience of enterotypes.
肠型这一名词于2011年的《自然》期刊中首次提出，其意义是对人体肠道微生物样本进行分类分析。然而随着关于肠型研究的日益增多，有关肠型的存在性与鲁棒性的质疑也开始浮现。在这里，我们从概念以及分析角度回顾了目前关于肠型的观点与意见。我们首先阐明了肠型的定义以及肠型的多种影响因素，例如饮食，抗生素治疗和年龄。此外，我们总结了多条质疑肠型概念的证据，并且描述了目前进行肠型分析的计算方法。最终，我们展示了肠型概念已经延伸到人体其他部位的微生物以及其他物种的肠道微生物。基于目前已有的关于肠型的研究，我们发现要想描述清楚肠型的特征仍需要更大的样本量以及更多样化的样本来源个体。我们也需要改进的算法来建立复杂精细的模型，从而表征肠型的动态特征与恢复能力。





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