Fig. 3

Variation in the most abundant discriminant ASVs across host plant growth stages. Identification of the ASVs with an average relative abundance ≥ 0.7% within each tomato cultivar sample group and discriminant (according to the Wilcoxon‒Mann‒Whitney test, FDR-corrected p value < 0.1) in at least one of the three comparisons among the tomato growth stages (post-transplant, flowering, harvesting), in at least one sampling region (Campania and Sicily). The taxa are sorted in descending order according to the average fold change (flowering/post-transplant) between the two sampling regions. The Wilcoxon‒Mann‒Whitney test results are shown (left heatmap): red denotes ASVs significantly enriched in the post-transplant stage, green denotes those significantly enriched in the flowering stage, blue denotes those significantly enriched in the harvesting stage, and gray denotes nonsignificant (Ns) comparisons. Prevalence (central heatmap) and average relative abundance (right heatmap) values were calculated by grouping samples with respect to tomato cultivar (Ciliegino and Pietrarossa F1/Maraskino), sampling time, and sampling region