Fig. 1

Boxplots representing 16S rRNA gene and 18S rRNA gene levels in the control group (n = 13). The central rectangles represent interquartile ranges (IQR), the lines inside the rectangles show the median, and the whiskers indicate the maximum and minimum values. The dots outside the rectangles are suspected outliers (> 1.5 × IQR). Statistically significant differences (p value < 0.05) between the two variables (16S rRNA gene and 18S rRNA gene) were found (Mann-Whitney U test)