Microbiome Diversity Indices across the first two months of life. A) Analyses of beta diversity based on weighted UniFrac distances between samples. Principal coordinates analysis with ellipses representing 95% confidence intervals shows clear separation of microbial profiles between MR and HR infants at 2, 4, and 8 weeks. B) Inter-individual distances illustrate the magnitude of dissimilarity in the profiles, which was significantly larger in HR infants at 2 weeks of age, but was lower than the microbial diversity across all MR infants at 4 and 8 weeks of age. C) Further categorization based on the phylogenetic analogue of taxon richness revealed no effect of rearing condition at any age point. Values are: box, median; whiskers, 25 and 75% quartiles; lines, 1.5 times the interquartile range. Outliers are illustrated by circles.
*, p<.01; **, p<.005.