FIG 5.

Metagenomic markers of weight loss in a subcohort of 25 individuals. Metagenomic gene cluster abundances significantly associated with weight loss (independent of baseline BMI, age, and sex), binned into high-level functional categories (A). Average phylum-specific bacterial replication rates estimated from metagenomes show significant differences across weight loss groups (B). In panel B, “NA” denotes contigs without a phylum-level classification (i.e., not enough single-copy phylogenetic marker genes within those contigs to obtain a phylum-level classification) and asterisks denote significance under ANOVAs while correcting for age and baseline BMI (***, P < 0.001; **, P < 0.01). Schematic of the proposed microbiome-mediated mechanisms involved in weight loss promotion or resistance based on specific metagenomic functions from panel A that were positively or negatively associated with weight loss (C).