Fig. 4: Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) based on weighted UniFrac distances.

Three two-dimensional PCoA plots depict the spatial clustering of samples along the first three principal coordinates: a PCo2 vs. PCo3 (explaining 16.17% and 13.56% of variation, respectively), b PCo1 vs. PCo3 (37.32% and 13.56%), c PCo1 vs. PCo2 (37.32% and 16.17%). Samples are color-coded by group: blue for Placebo, and red for L. plantarum OL3246. Group separation was statistically evaluated using PERMANOVA (n = 21 samples, 2 groups, 999 permutations), suggesting a significant difference in beta diversity between groups (pseudo-F = 2.354254, p-value = 0.028, q-value = 0.028).