Figure 4.

Hypothetical representation of the effect of the presence and absence of a fungal outgrowth that modulates bacterial community reassembly. Reassembly of the bacterial microbiome after antibiotic therapy is an ordered process (T_A→T₁→T₂→T₀). Emerging evidence suggests that reassembly may be impacted by the bloom of specific fungal species when colonization resistance is destroyed. This figure provides an illustration of an ecological modeling (ordination) of such a process, in which the bacterial community structure undergoes a different reassembly process (T_A→T_1f→T_2f→T₀) in the presence of a fungal bloom. In this example, the differences in bacterial community structure (membership, richness, and evenness) between the T_A→T₁→T₂→T₀ path and the T_A→T_1f→T_2f→T₀ path could manifest as secondary changes in microbiome-mediated physiologic processes such as immune regulation or metabolism. Abbreviation: T, timepoint.