People Fall Into Three Categories of gut Microbiota

BRUSSELS, April 20, 2011 - Every person's intestinal system falls into one of three
clearly distinguishable types of gut microbiota, comparable to blood types.
These types are not related to race, native country or diet, according to a
new metagenomics study by an international consortium of scientists including
Jeroen Raes, of the VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, published in Nature.
Metagenomics is the study of the genetic material of complete ecosystems, in
this case the human gut.

"The three gut types can explain why the uptake of medicines
and nutrients varies from person to person," says bioinformatician Jeroen
Raes of the VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, one of the two lead
researchers in the study. "This knowledge could form the basis of
personalized therapies. Treatments and doses could be determined on the basis
of the gut type of the patient."

Improved knowledge of the gut types could also lead to other
medical applications, such as the early diagnosis of intestinal cancer,
Crohn's disease and the adverse effects of obesity.

Three types of gut microbiota

The types of gut microbiota (called enterotypes) can be
classified into three large, clearly distinguishable groups: Bacteroides,
Prevotella and Ruminococcus. They are named for the bacteria that dominate
the intestines of the respective groups. It is still unclear whether people
can change from one group to another during their lives.

Research team

This research was conducted by Jeroen Raes of the VIB
Department of Molecular and Cellular Interactions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
VIB and Manimozhiyan Arumugam of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory,
under the direction of Dusko Ehrlich and Peer Bork of the MetaHIT consortium.

Read more on

www.vib.be/Jeroen-Raes

Notes to the editor

Source:

VIB is a non-profit research institute in the life sciences in Flanders,
Belgium, with 1200 scientists conducting strategic basic research on the
molecular mechanisms that are responsible for the functioning of the human
body, plants, and micro-organisms. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is a
university in the heart of Belgium and Europe www.vub.ac.be/

Contact details (editors only): Prof. Jeroen Raes, VIB-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, +32477697668,
jeroen.raes at vib-vub.be