Fig. 1

Rumen microbiome changes with ages in the early life of goats. A The ages, sampling day, and diet regime for goat kids in this study. B The number of observed families in rumen. The line inside the box denotes the median, and the boxes denote the interquartile (IQR) between the first and third quartiles (25th and 75th percentiles, respectively). The observed families on d1 were significantly lower than other ages (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, p < 0.05). C Principle Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) of Bray–Curtis distances between microbiota. The R2 and P-value of PERMONOVA to test the differences of beta diversity was labeled. The cluster of d1 samples was distinct compared with other ages, while d7 and d14 were clustered separately compared with the ages when goat kids accessed the starter diet (d42 to d84). D Bacterial abundances at the family level. Each bar represents a bacterial family and each column represents one sample