Fig. 4
Characterization of microbial communities in Ascaris worms. A Female and male Ascaris microbiomes do not differ in richness. ASV richness from Ascaris worms was not linked to the sex of worms. The lack of sex difference in ASV richness was independent of experimental batch effects. BAscaris microbiome composition is not determined by worm sex. Worm sex plays a minor and nonsignificant role in clustering of worm microbiomes (PERMANOVAsex: R2 = 0.009, p > 0.05; ANOSIMSex: R = 0.091, p > 0.05) compared to the dominant bacteria or the host of origin. C The abundance of main phyla in Ascaris microbiomes is not different between worm sexes. A nonsignificant difference in abundance of the main bacterial phyla between Ascaris worms of both sexes was detected. However, only a trend for Firmicutes abundance in females and Proteobacteria abundance in males was detected. D Differential bacterial ASVs in female and male Ascaris. Despite there being no overall community differences, particular bacterial taxa (ASVs) were differentially abundant between male and female worms. Each point depicts log2 fold differential abundance values (x-axis) and −log10 of the adjusted p-values (odds ratio). Values > 0 represent enrichment of the 15 ASVs in the males compared to females which included Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Values < 0 reflect differential abundance of 5 ASVs in the females compared to males, including Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and members from the family Prevotellaceae. E Microbial composition at genus level of worms by sex. Relative abundance at genus level is presented for each individual worm collected from infected pigs. Genus with less than 1% relative abundance are binned as Taxa less represented