"We found that the combination of microbes in the human intestine isn't random," says Peer Bork, who led the study at EMBL: "our gut flora can settle into three different types of community – three different ecosystems, if you like."
The study consisted of a total of 124 people from three different continents and three gut types, or enterotypes, were identified. These gut types seem to be independent of traits like age, gender, nationality and body-mass index. However, the guts of older people seem to have more microbial genes involved in breaking down carbohydrates. This could be because bacteria take up the task in order to survive in the gut. When diagnosing likelihood of a patient contracting a disease, doctors could look for clues not only in the body but also in the bacteria that live in it. After diagnosis, treatment could be adapted to the patient's gut type to ensure the best results.
