Fig. 5

Transcriptomic analysis of recolonized adult polyps 2 days post recolonization. A t-SNE plot of the sequenced samples clustering according to their treatment. GF = germfree. B Venn diagram of regulated genes in all three treatments and their overlaps. To increase the statistical power, the three comparisons bL vs GF, bJ vs GF, and bA vs GF were separately done to the fourth comparison of bL-bJ-bA vs GF. This way, 1352 more genes could be found that are differentially regulated in all three treatments. C Expression of KEGG clusters of all three treatments versus germfree polyps. The barplots show the counts of the genes belonging into the different KEGG clusters, while the dots represent the ratio of the counts to the size of the cluster. D, E Normalized read counts of the two chitin synthase genes NVE8515 and NVE14301 in Nematostella, 2 days post recolonization. D Normalized read counts for NVE8515 in recolonized animals compared to germfree animals. E Normalized read counts for NVE14301 in recolonized animals compared to germfree animals (log2fc = 2.04, p < 0.001)