Fig. 2

Cecal gut microbiota analysis of flour supplemented rats. Alpha diversity index ASV/Species Richness. Statistically significant differences between all diet groups were determined using a Kruskal–Wallis test followed by a FDR-corrected pairwise Wilcox test; *represents significance between diet groups and HFD (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01) (A). Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) using Bray–Curtis dissimilarity where each dot represents one animal; ADONIS, permutations = 999, p = 0.001, R² = 0.423 (B). Beta diversity of each diet group at the genus level (C). Stacked bar plot showing the composition of the microbial community at genus level for each of the analyzed groups (D). Boxplots showing relative abundance of selected genera per group. Letters represent grouping according to Dunn’s Kruskal–Wallis Multiple Comparisons test (significant p < 0.05 after FDR correction)