Fig. 4

Differences in microbial profiles between PT and NPT groups and core microbiome. A Cladogram generated by LEfSe analysis highlights differences in taxa between argon plasma pre-treated (PT) and non-pre-treated (NPT) healing abutments (p > 0.05). Regions in red indicate taxa that are significantly enriched in the NPT, while regions in green represent taxa enriched in PT. Nods colored in yellow are not significantly different between groups. Each ring represents a taxonomic level, with the phylum level on the inside and the genus level in the outermost ring. B Differences in abundance amongst bacterial species of interest detected in PT versus NPT groups are expressed as bar plots indicating the average relative abundance and standard deviation for each species in the PT (grey) and the NPT group (back). In general, PT increased abundance of Streptococcus gordonii, Streptococcus mitis, and Actinomyces gerencseriae, while NPT healing abutments exhibited increased abundance of Neisseria oralis. The fungal diversity was higher in PT when compared to NPT, but without statistical significance. Marked with an asterisk are the species significantly different between groups (p < 0.05). C Core microbiome analysis panels show the species that are (1) part of a core, shared microbiome between PT and NPT groups (in green), (2) unique for PT group (in blue), and (3) unique for NPT group (in yellow). The core microbiome was calculated as described in the methods section. Briefly, the species had to be present in more than 50% of patients in each group, and at an average abundance of at least 0.1%. Highlighted in a darker shade are those species that were present in at least 2% of relative abundance or higher