Figure 2: Core and distinguishing functions of human body site microbiomes.
From: Strains, functions and dynamics in the expanded Human Microbiome Project
a, In total, 28 metabolic pathways were core at all 6 major body sites (‘supercore’ pathways). An, anterior nares; Bm, buccal mucosa; Pf, posterior fornix; S, stool; Sp, supragingival plaque; Td, tongue dorsum. Two supercore pathways and b, 17 additional pathways were core in multiple body areas and enriched among human-associated taxa (‘human microbiome-enriched’ pathways). c, 21 pathways were considerably more abundant at 1 body site than at sites from all other body areas (‘body site-enriched’ pathways). Heat map values reflect the first quartile of relative abundance (heat maps are expanded in Extended Data Fig. 3). In pathway bar plots, total (community) abundance is log-scaled, and the contributions of the top seven genera are proportionally scaled within the total. ‘Other’ encompasses contributions from additional, known genera; ‘unclassified’ encompasses contributions of unknown taxonomy.
