TABLE 2.

The relationships between the alpha-diversity of gut microbiota and potential keystone OTUs

OTU iD	Avg abundance	Keystone type	Shannon		Richness		PD
			R	p	R	p	R	p
12 to 26 dph	(%)
OTU157	0.014	Connectors	0.525	<0.001	0.559	<0.001	0.476	<0.001
OTU204	0.022	Connectors	0.533	<0.001	0.000	0.001	0.426	0.001
OTU295	0.010	Connectors	0.409	0.006	0.603	<0.001	0.522	<0.001
OTU303	0.007	Connectors	0.538	<0.001	0.482	<0.001	0.470	<0.001
OTU335	0.007	Connectors	0.598	<0.001	0.658	<0.001	0.636	<0.001
OTU420	0.015	Connectors	0.542	<0.001	0.512	<0.001	0.483	<0.001
OTU1062	0.021	Connectors	0.507	<0.001	0.406	0.008	0.392	0.007
27 to 42 dph
OTU436	0.017	Connectors	0.377	<0.001	0.327	0.007	0.324	0.004
OTU451	0.009	Connectors	0.381	<0.001	0.315	0.016	0.311	0.009
OTU465	0.015	Connectors	0.363	0.001	0.360	0.001	0.367	<0.001
OTU717	0.016	Connectors	0.403	<0.001	0.410	<0.001	0.383	<0.001
OTU747	0.006	Connectors	0.424	<0.001	0.349	0.002	0.345	0.001
OTU860	0.008	Connectors	0.356	0.001	0.327	0.007	0.301	0.016
OTU1625	0.004	Connectors	0.386	<0.001	0.340	0.003	0.290	0.029
56 to 98 dph
OTU226a	0.052	Connectors	0.472	<0.001	0.512	<0.001	0.435	<0.001
OTU295	0.012	Connectors	0.367	<0.001	0.438	<0.001	0.000	<0.001
OTU296	0.024	Connectors	0.557	<0.001	0.644	<0.001	0.554	<0.001
OTU300	0.026	Connectors	0.561	<0.001	0.639	<0.001	0.556	<0.001
OTU322	0.024	Connectors	0.562	<0.001	0.653	<0.001	0.570	<0.001
OTU350	0.018	Connectors	0.378	<0.001	0.334	<0.001	0.334	<0.001
OTU354	0.019	Connectors	0.367	<0.001	0.287	0.002	0.279	0.002
OTU366	0.013	Connectors	0.609	<0.001	0.711	<0.001	0.675	<0.001
OTU390	0.014	Connectors	0.297	0.001	0.273	0.006	0.277	0.002
OTU424	0.015	Connectors	0.362	<0.001	0.313	<0.001	0.318	<0.001
OTU468	0.014	Connectors	0.356	<0.001	0.270	0.007	0.282	0.001
OTU482	0.008	Connectors	0.606	<0.001	0.693	<0.001	0.627	<0.001
OTU523	0.009	Connectors	0.497	<0.001	0.564	<0.001	0.490	<0.001
OTU526	0.007	Connectors	0.299	0.001	0.359	<0.001	0.377	<0.001
OTU542	0.010	Connectors	0.542	<0.001	0.602	<0.001	0.577	<0.001
OTU548	0.008	Connectors	0.538	<0.001	0.654	<0.001	0.576	<0.001
OTU578	0.010	Connectors	0.511	<0.001	0.536	<0.001	0.522	<0.001
OTU632	0.007	Connectors	0.570	<0.001	0.597	<0.001	0.558	<0.001
OTU677	0.007	Connectors	0.623	<0.001	0.651	<0.001	0.575	<0.001
OTU685	0.008	Connectors	0.583	<0.001	0.630	<0.001	0.564	<0.001
OTU687	0.006	Connectors	0.553	<0.001	0.637	<0.001	0.599	<0.001
OTU711	0.006	Connectors	0.506	<0.001	0.603	<0.001	0.556	<0.001
OTU857	0.004	Connectors	0.425	<0.001	0.488	<0.001	0.476	<0.001
OTU858	0.006	Connectors	0.266	0.010	0.333	<0.001	0.367	<0.001
OTU942	0.007	Connectors	0.368	<0.001	0.330	<0.001	0.303	<0.001
OTU947	0.005	Connectors	0.335	<0.001	0.357	<0.001	0.344	<0.001
OTU963	0.004	Connectors	0.329	<0.001	0.314	<0.001	0.281	0.001
OTU988	0.005	Connectors	0.427	<0.001	0.539	<0.001	0.506	<0.001
OTU6860	0.002	Connectors	0.381	<0.001	0.310	<0.001	0.273	0.002

^aIndicates the OTU was neither abundant nor rare; no marks mean rare OTUs and their taxonomy (please see Table S3). Only the potential keystone OTUs showed significant (p < 0.05) relationships with all the three alpha-diversity indices were given. PD, phylogenetic distance; dph, days post-hatching.