Figure 5.

Effect of pregnancy and nicotine on cecal bacterial abundance and composition in female SD rats. LDA analysis of cecal bacterial taxa demonstrates significant shifts in taxonomic groups during pregnancy alone (in (A) red = virgin control; green = pregnant control), during s.c. exposure to nicotine in female SD rats (in (B) red = virgin control, green = virgin nicotine), and during pregnancy with exposure to s.c. nicotine (in (C) red = pregnant control, green = pregnant nicotine) in SD dams. Each color represents a more abundant bacterial taxon relative to the other group. A marked decrease in Proteobacteria and specifically Betaproteobacteria in the PREG NIC vs. PREG CON group is shown (in (C)), while an elevated abundance in Betaproteobacteria may be important in normal rodent pregnancy (in (A)). Data are based on 16s sequencing analysis, n = 6–8 per group.