Figure 4
Alpha diversity in sputum samples compared with different combined hypervariable regions in 16S rRNA. Alpha diversity, measured by the Chao1 (Fig. 3A), inverse Simpson (Fig. 3B), and Shannon(Fig. 3C) diversity indices, is plotted for the hypervariable regions V1–V2 (red), V3–V4 (blue), V5–V7 (green), and V7–V9 (purple). The line inside the boxplot represents the median, with the lowest and highest values within the 1.5 interquartile range represented by the whiskers. All diversity indices were significantly decreased in V7–V9: pShannon = 4.6 E-07, pinvSimpson = 1 E-07, and pChao1 = 7.1 E-06.
