Internal transcribed spacer sequencing to explore the intrinsic composition of fungal communities in fungal esophagitis

Figure 2 The mycobiota diversity in three groups. A: A rarefaction curve based on species richness in the Chao1 index. The X-axis shows the drawing depth, and the Y-axis shows the median value of the alpha diversity index calculated 10 times vs the boxplot. The flatter the curve, indicating that the sequencing result is sufficient to reflect the diversity contained in the current sample; B: Comparison of alpha diversity analyses between groups in the esophageal normal controls, suspected fungal esophagitis (NFE), and FE groups; C: Comparison of alpha diversity analysis between Kodsi I and Kodsi II within the FE group; D: Comparison of alpha diversity analysis between Kodsi grade I and Kodsi grade II within the suspected FE group. The alpha-diversity was evaluated by the Chao1 index, Shannon, and Pielou’s evenness, Chao1 index, Shannon index and Pielou's evenness index represent richness, diversity and evenness within the community, respectively; E: Analysis of NMDS using the Bray-Curtis distance matrix (stress = 0.14). ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.001. NC: The esophageal normal control; NFE: Suspected fungal esophagitis; FE: Fungal esophagitis.