Fig. 1

Alpha and beta diversity for asthma and control samples as estimated by different distance metrics. a Alpha diversity measures show controls are more diverse than asthma individuals in metrics that account for evenness, however in asthma individuals we observed more species. Observed = observed diversity; Chao1 = Chao estimator; Shannon = Shannon diversity index; Simpson = Simpson diversity index. b Multidimensional scaling using principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Coordinates 1 and 2 explain 95 % of the observed variance