Fig. 5

Ex vivo community analysis of rumen microbial communities enriched with inulin. (A) Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) plot comparing the community composition at different time points: 0 h (green), 1 d (yellow), and 2 d (blue). (B) NMDS plot comparing the effect inulin enrichment has on the community composition for control (grey), 1.5% inulin (light blue), and 3% inulin (orange). (C) Alpha-diversity (Chao1 and Shannon indices) in rumen microbial communities enriched with inulin over time. (D) Dendrogram showing similarity clustering of rumen microbial community compositions between different treatments and time points. Bar plots underneath display the relative abundance of common ruminal bacterial and archaeal phyla in rumen samples. (E) Percent change in abundance of Bifidobacterium species (yellow), Lactobacillus species (mint), and other Lactobacillaceae members (purple)