Fig. 1

Single pathogens as well as complex bacterial communities can cause severe NSTIs. a Bacterial composition in tissue biopsies (n = 148) from patients with NSTIs. Bacterial genera with a mean relative abundance of ≥2.5% across all samples or a maximal relative abundance of ≥80% are depicted. The Gini–Simpson diversity index shows genus-level diversity. b Co-occurrence network of the 18 genera with the highest mean relative abundance across all samples. Dark edges illustrate co-occurrence, light edges mutual exclusion (Brown’s p-value ≤0.05). Outer lines represent distinct bacterial clusters (see Supplementary Figure 8). c Bacterial community diversity and structure in NSTI biopsies depicted against the affected body part. The bacterial community diversity is given to the top where each dot represents the Gini–Simpson diversity index from one specimen. Lines represent median values. Diversity indices across the five body parts (n = 14, 18, 12, 23, and 37, respectively from left to right) were compared using the Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison post hoc test with ***p < 0.001; *p < 0.05. The bacterial community structure is indicated to the bottom where bars depict the mean relative abundance of genera at each body site. The color code depicting the different genera is as given in a. For statistical evaluation of the relative abundance of genera at different body sites see Table 2. Source data are provided in Supplementary Data 1, 2, 3, and 4