Prevotella
Plain-English definitions of microbiome research vocabulary — the terms you'll see across articles, testing services, and probiotic claims.
A bacterial genus associated with high-fibre, plant-rich diets. Prevotella copri is dominant in populations consuming traditional, grain-based diets and is relatively rare in Western populations eating processed food. It defines one of the three proposed human gut enterotypes.
Related terms
Enterotype
A classification of the human gut microbiome into distinct community types, first proposed in 2011. Three enterotypes were identified based on dominant genera: Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Ruminococcus.
Microbiome Diversity
The variety and abundance of different microbial species in a given environment. Greater diversity is consistently associated with better health outcomes, while reduced diversity is linked to obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and other chronic conditions.