Fig. 1

Bacterial alpha diversity and composition shifts as influenced by diet. Alpha diversity indices of the piglet gut microbiota increase while the variability of the microbiota among individual piglets decreases as the piglets age. Significant differences between mean proportions of bacterial taxa at the family level in nursing and weaned pig fecal samples were indicated as the blue and red up arrows, whose relative abundances were higher in nursing and weaned piglets, respectively. Figure was modified with permission from the article by Frese et al. [39]