Fig. 2

Changes to key bacterial OTUs in the microbial community over the course of aging. Representation of different key bacterial OTUs found in 16S rRNA sequencing of different plant ages: "Seedling" (10 days old), "Vegetative" (3 weeks old), and "Reproductive" (6 weeks old). A Stacked bars representing the percentage of key bacterial OTUs in the microbial community of individual plants of different ages as indicated. B–G Proportion of different key groups, as indicated, with statistical analysis. Floating bars encompass minimum to maximum values, line indicates mean. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences between samples in a two-tailed t-test with Welch's correction (B–F), or a Mann–Whitney test (G). B p < 0.0079; C p < 0.044; D p < 0.004; E p < 0.0076; F p < 0.018; G p < 0.029