Figure 2

Analysis of the community structure of fecal microbiota reveals differences between breast-fed (BF, green) and formula-fed (Experimental Formula, EF, orange; Standard Formula, SF, red) infants at 2, 4 and 6 months of age. (a) Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) of the log transformed weighted Unifrac distance. The centroids of each cluster (centroid of mass) are calculated as the average of PC1 and PC2 for each group. The ellipses were constructed based on multivariate normal distribution at 95% confidence level. The effect size (R²) and significance (p-value) between dietary groups were evaluated using permutational MANOVA via the Adonis test (permutation = 999). (b) Divergence (the spread within the group) was significantly higher in the BF infants during the exclusive feeding period. The measurement of divergence is calculated as 1- the average spearman correlation between samples and the overall group-wise average. The group difference was evaluated using a Kruskal-Wallis H test follow by the post-hoc Dunn test at p < 0.05. (c,d) Significantly differentiating intestinal microbes between the breast-fed (BF, green) and formula-fed (FF, pink) infants. The group differences were evaluated using Analysis of Composition of Microbiomes (ANCOM) followed by FDR correction at p < 0.05.