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Fig. 3 | Microbiome

Fig. 3

From: It's the fiber, not the fat: significant effects of dietary challenge on the gut microbiome

Fig. 3

Lack of soluble fiber, not fat, significantly alters gut microbiota composition in young adult and 1-year aged male mice. a Principal coordinates analysis comparing fecal microbiota community structure between males consuming chow and refined diet, demonstrating the significant effect of chow and refined diet on community structure (PERMANOVA, F = 26.577, r2 = 0.617, P < 0.0001), accounting for 69.9% of variance. No difference in community structure between rLFD and rHFD males was observed (PERMANOVA, F = 1.264, r2 = 0.054, P = 0.261). b Additional principal coordinates analysis comparing fecal microbiota community structure between young adult and aged males consuming chow, rLFD, and rHFD, demonstrating significant interactions of age, rLFD, and rHFD on community structure (PERMANOVA, F = 8.84, r2 = 0.688, P < 0.001). c, d Comparison of community diversity in young adult and aged males consuming chow, rLFD, and rHFD. c The alpha diversity measure, observed species, plotted against sampling time point demonstrating significant differences in the number of unique taxa following dietary transition and consumption of refined diets (Kruskal-Wallis, H = 17.32, P = 0.015). d The alpha diversity measure, Shannon diversity index, plotted against sampling time point shows significant differences in community richness and evenness in young adult and aged males (Kruskal-Wallis, H = 26.943, P = 0.00034). e Stacked barplot showing the average relative abundance of taxa in chow, rLFD and rHFD young adult and aged males, characterized by a rapid and lasting loss of taxa within the Bacteroidetes phylum and concurrent bloom of taxa within the Firmicutes and Proteobacteria phyla. Taxa key is truncated at the 18 most abundant taxa. f Heatmap depicting 32 significantly different taxa by age and diet in females identified by linear discriminant analysis (FDR < 0.05). Columns represent taxa within each cage. Data represented as individual data points averaged per cage ± SEM

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