Microbial composition analysis by 16S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing
Stool aliquots were thawed prior to microbial DNA extraction using a Fast DNA Stool Mini Kit (Qiagen) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 16S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing (rRNA) was performed at the NU-OMICS DNA sequencing research facility (Northumbria University). Sequencing libraries were prepared for targeted sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene from PCR amplicons as per the Schloss standard operating procedure (SOP) [