Fig. 7: Comparison of bacterial and viral content and diversity scores across groups show differences in viral content upon infection that shift back with nisin treatment.

The groups included Control, Infection, Nisin (H), L. lactis, Non-nisin L. lactis, Infection + Nisin (H), Infection + L. lactis, and Infection + Non-nisin L. lactis). A, B Bacterial and viral content in TPM and 95% confidence interval (CI) is shown across groups. In terms of bacterial content, there is no significant difference between groups. Statistical significance was determined using a two-sample t-test assuming equal variance of samples from the two groups. The difference in variance with a p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. *p < 0.05. In terms of viral content, the Infection group has significantly higher virus content than the Control group, Nisin group, Infection + Nisin (H) group, and Infection + L. lactis group. C, D Bacterial and viral Shannon diversity is shown for different groups. In terms of bacterial diversity, there is no significant difference between the groups. In terms of viral diversity, the Infection group has slightly higher but non-significant diversity than the Control and L. lactis groups. Data are presented as the box plots of six mice per group; the box shows the quartiles while the whiskers extend to show the rest of the distribution.