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.

中文翻译：

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肠道微生物群落组成景观中的肠型。

人口分层是一种有助于更好地了解人类健康和福祉中复杂生物问题的有用方法。这种分层适用于人类肠道微生物组的提议，以称为肠型的独特的社区组成类型的形式，引起了兴奋和争议。鉴于自原始工作以来积累的数据和重新分析，我们重新审视了肠型概念，讨论了划分可能的微生物组构型的不同方法，并将这些概念应用于功能，生态和医学环境。由于肠分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重要意义，因此我们旨在调和不同观点，并鼓励平衡应用该概念。