title: Rethinking "enterotypes".
abstract: Classification of the human gut microbiome into distinct types, or "enterotypes," provides an attractive framework for understanding microbial variation in health and disease. However, as discussed here, several different methods of collapsing enterotype variation into a few discrete clusters suggest that enterotype distribution is continuous and can vary widely within an individual.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA; BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Knights
authors.affiliation: BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Tonya L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA; BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: McKinlay
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Biofrontiers Institute, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Biofrontiers Institute, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Biofrontiers Institute, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. Electronic address: rob.knight@colorado.edu.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D058448:Biota; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome