Fig. 4.

Oral exposure to SiO₂NPs caused the disturbance of gut microbiota and their associated biological functions. A The correlations between microbiota and samples in the vehicle group and SiO₂NPs group was detected using Circos analysis. B The phylogenetic tree was used to show the evolutionary relationships among bacteria on the genus level. Network analysis at the OTU level was shown in (C). The relationship of microbial communities each other was displayed in (D). E The clusters of orthologous groups (COGs) analysis displayed the top increased and the top decreased functional abundances of microbial community