Figure 2.

Biplot overview (A,C,E) of central carbon metabolism metabolites and associated volcano plots (B,D,F) of the significant metabolites using a fold change threshold of ≥1.5 or ≤0.66 and a p-value of ≤0.05. (A,B) nasal washes (R²X = 0.414, R²Y = 0.502, and Q² = 0.175); (C,D) oral swabs (R²X = 0.428, R²Y = 0.336, and Q² = −0.134), and (E,F) rectal swabs (R²X = 0.202, R²Y = 0.628, and Q² = −0.148). The ellipse on the biplots represent the 100%, 75% and 50% correlation coefficient for measured metabolites. For panels (A,C,E), the colored circles represent each analyzed sample, while the yellow-colored stars indicating the averaged group position for each sample cluster, and the white circles representing the distribution of central carbon metabolism metabolites between these groups. In the volcano plots (panels B,D,F), the red circles represent significant metabolites identified during shedding, the green circles represent significant metabolites post-shedding, and the white circles represent the non-significant metabolites.