The microbiome mediates the diet’s effect.
Each alluvial plot shows paths from diet to outcomes that are mediated by oral and gut microbial species (two-sided bootstrap We also investigated whether microbial species mediated the effects of diet on serum metabolites. In the PPT group, seven gut species, two Finally, we examined whether microbial species mediated the effects of diet on cytokines. In the PPT group, Overall, the results indicate that the microbiome plays a mediating role in the effect of the dietary interventions on glycemic, metabolic and immune measurements, and that taxonomically-similar species can have different mediatory roles.