2.6. Statistical analysis

Data are expressed as the mean ± standard error of the mean. The figures were prepared using GraphPad Prism 9.4 software; comparisons between groups were performed using GraphPad Prism 9.4 software using a one-way analysis of variance. The Tukey-HSD test was used to compare the differences α-diversity between the three groups. PCoA based on the abundances of each sample was performed to evaluate the degree of similarity between the samples. LEfse software was used to analyze the difference groups. First, kruskal-Wallis test was performed among samples from all groups, and then wilcoxon test was used to compare the selected different species between the two groups. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was used to select differences whose score ≥ 3. Differences were considered statistically significant at a p-value < 0.05.