Fig. 4

Variations in the α (intra-individual) and β (inter-individual) diversity of the gut archaeome with geography, ethnicity, and rural versus urban residency. a The fecal archaeome α diversity, as measured in Shannon diversity index, was plotted and compared across all ethnicities, and between rural and urban subjects with respect to each ethnic group. Across-population comparisons were conducted between the base mean of group of interest and that of all groups, statistical significance was determined by Wilcoxon rank sum test with Holm-Bonferroni adjustment of p values, ^$$p < 0.01. Statistical significance between rural and urban populations for each individual ethnic group was determined by Mann-Whitney test, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. b, c The β diversity of fecal archaeomes with ethnicity and rural versus urban residency (b), and geographic region (c). The β diversity of archaeomes was calculated as the Bray-Curtis dissimilarities between individual archaeomes. Across-population comparisons were conducted between the base mean of group of interest and that of all groups, statistical significance was determined by Wilcoxon rank sum test with Holm-Bonferroni adjustment of p values, ^$$p < 0.01, ^$$$p < 0.001, ^$$$$p < 0.0001. Statistical significance between rural and urban populations for each individual ethnic group was determined by Mann-Whitney test, ****p < 0.0001. For box plots, the boxes extend from the 1st to 3rd quartile (25th to 75th percentile), with the median depicted by a horizontal line