Figure 1.

Abundances and alpha diversities for fungi and bacteria. Abundance and alpha diversity data for fungi and bacteria for children's samples at different ages [10 days, 3 months, 1, and 2 years; fungal data reported in (15)]. The average fungal abundances (A) decreased significantly (P = 0.01) from 10 days (2.83 log ITS/ml) to 1 year (2.19 log ITS/ml). The dashed blue line indicates the sequencing cut-off for fungi. Similarly, the bacterial abundance (B) decreased significantly (P = 0.04) from 10 days (6.31 log 16S/ml) to 3 months (6.06 log 16S/ml), and then increased toward 1 year (7.00 log 16S/ml, P < 0.01). There was insufficient data to determine the effect of age on the fungal alpha diversity (C); however, bacterial alpha diversity (D) increased steadily from its lowest at 10 days (1.30 H′) and highest at 2 years (2.86 H′, P < 0.01). Cesarean section was associated with a non-significant trend toward lower bacterial alpha diversity at 3 months of age (1.09 vs. 1.36 H′, P = 0.06). Diamonds indicate sample means and error bars cover the 95% CI.