Fig. 5

Disturbed gut microbiota mediates ASD susceptibility in PCE-induced IUGR rats. A Schematic of the fecal microbiota transplantation experiment. B Alpha diversity represented by the Simpson index and the Shannon index. C Beta diversity as shown by the PCoA plot. An ellipse represents the 68% confidence interval of microbial distribution in each group. D DNA level of fldC in feces. E LEfSe of differentiating genera or species in gut microbiota between groups (LDA > 2). F IPA levels in different samples. G An illustrative example of travel pathways of rats in social choice test, open field test, and Y maze test. H Time of rats spent in each zone in social choice test. I Time spent in the center, distance traveled in the center, and total distance traveled in open field test. J Marble burying index in marble burying test. K Spontaneous alteration rate in Y maze test. L Correlations between the time spent in target zone or marble burying index and the IPA level in hippocampal tissue. Dots in panels represent individual samples. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, and ^***P < 0.001