Impact of fecal sample preservation and handling techniques on the canine fecal microbiota profile
Fig 2
Comparison of alpha and beta diversity metrics.
Pairwise comparisons of weighted UniFrac distance were performed between groups of samples subject to different feces preservation strategies (A), the plot indicates the distance of each group at different time points (0.5 to 24 hours), considering homogenized samples with RNAlater added and stored in the fridge for 24 h before storing in the freezer (Hom_Lat_Fg at 0.5 h) as the reference group. Different lowercase letters in each box plot indicate significant differences between treatments (PERMANOVA test, p < 0.05). The Shannon entropy, which is indicative of both microbial richness and evenness, was also compared between groups, at different sampling times (B). Different lowercase letters in each box plot indicate significant differences between treatments (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < 0.05). Hom: homogenized; Lat: RNAlater added; Fg: fridge; Fr: freezer.