Fig. 4

Possible metabolic perturbations caused by microbial dysbiosis in ASD mice. a KEGG pathway analysis based on 16S data drawn out in heatmap. All pathways except “Protein digestion and absorption” have significant (p < 0.05) differences between CTL and each ASD experimental group. In “Protein digestion and absorption”, the p-values of CTL vs. VPA and CTL vs. Poly I:C are 0.045 and 0.055, respectively. Pathways in the red box have been reported to be perturbed in children with ASD, and those in the blue box have been implicated in patients with IBD. Purple box denotes that ASD and IBD showed the same manner of alteration in those pathways. b Relative abundance analysis of Sporanaerobacter in CTL and ASD mice. *p < 0.05 vs. CTL. c Serotonin level in serum detected by ELISA in CTL and ASD mice. *p < 0.05 vs. CTL. n = 9-14 in all experiments