Fig. 3.

Normalized abundance of bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the cecal microbiomes of Japanese rock ptarmigans. Cecal feces were collected from 1-, 2-, and 3-week-old chicks, as well from their hens. OTU numbers were normalized by total read number, in order to avoid bias from differences in sequencing depth. Error bars indicate standard deviation values. The figures above error bars indicate the sample numbers. *P<0.05 between 1-week-old chicks and adult, **P<0.01 between 1- and 3-week-old chicks.