Fig 3. PMA-seq registers little alteration of the living bacterial community with more freeze-thaw cycles.

(a) Beta diversity between subsamples from different freeze-thaw preparations reflected community perturbation, but the dissimilarity values were lower than for oxygen exposure. (b) Beta diversity between standard 16S rRNA sequencing and PMA-seq results reflected the number of freeze-thaw cycles. (c) OTUs of three dominant genera did not show uniform reactions to freeze-thaw cycles.