Fig. 3

Effects of LF feeding deficiency during lactation on intestinal development and intestinal microorganisms in 18-day-old suckling mice. A Body weight of 18-day-old mice. n = 8. B Small intestine and colon index of 18-day-old mice. n = 8–9. C Intestinal density of small intestinal and colon of 18-day-old mice. n = 8–9. D Crypt depth in the colon of 18-day-old mice and representative images of H.E-stained colonic sections, 200 × , scale bar = 100 μm. n = 6–8. E Counts of the goblet cells in the colon of 18-day-old mice and representative images of AB-stained colonic sections, 200 × , scale bar = 100 μm. n = 6–9. (A-E, data are presented as mean ± standard error. Student's t-test was employed for comparisons between two groups; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001). F Principal components analysis (PCA) of small intestinal RNAseq. G Differential expression genes (DEGs) between wt-wt group and ko-wt group mice. (P adjust < 0.05, fold change ≥ 2). H KEGG functional annotation analysis of differential genes of wt-wt and ko-wt group mice. I The clustering heatmap of immune related DEGs between wt-wt group and ko-wt group. J Tight junction genes expression in RNAseq. F-J, n = 3. K Alpha diversity index difference analysis of the wt-wt and ko-wt group: Shannon index, Chao index. Wilcoxon rank-sum test. L Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) of bacterial beta-diversity based on the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity index and evaluated using ANOSIM. Each symbol represents a single sample of feces. M Composition of microbial community at phylum level of 18-day-old sucking mice. N Student’s t-test on Phylum level of 18-day-old sucking mice. O Linear discriminant analysis (LDA > 3) scores derived from LEfSe analysis at genus level of 18-day-old sucking mice, K–O, n = 8