Figure 5.

Stressor exposure significantly alters the community structure of the mucosa-associated microbiota. (A) Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were unchanged between any of the groups in the experiment. (B) Upon examining the lesser phyla, Actinobacteria was significantly reduced in the RST Stressor group compared to FWD Control and HCC Control mice. Deferribacteres was significantly increased in RST Stressor mice compared to HCC Control mice, but not FWD Control mice. Phyla abundance data were compared first using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used post-hoc. (C) Principle coordinate analysis was used to visualize clustering of similar community profiles. Restraint stressor-exposed mice significantly clustered using the ANOSIM statistic (HCC Control vs. RST Stressor, P < 0.01) (FWD Control vs. RST Stressor, P < 0.01). FWD Control and HCC Control also clustered significantly apart from each other (P < 0.05). Data are for N = 5 for all groups.