Fig. 1

Principal Coordinate analysis (PCoA) demonstrating between sample variations in beta-diversity. PCoA plot was generated using a weighted UniFrac distance matrix. a The PERMANOVA analysis (p < 0.001) and PCoA demonstrated, irrespective of which eye was swabbed the resulting perturbation to affect the other eye. As such, no significant difference in bacterial community composition was detected in respect to eye swabbed. This is apparent in the PCoA plot with no clustering. Color scheme; Red – day 0 and Teal – day 17; Shape scheme; Circle – left eye swabbed on day 0, Triangle – left eye swabbed on day 17, Square – right eye swabbed on day 0 and Cross – right eye swabbed on day 17. b PERMANOVA analysis demonstrated microbial communities to be significantly different based on time of sampling (p < 0.05). This  is apparent in the clustering pattern. Time points 1 and 4 demonstrated similar community structure that was different from time points 2 and 3. Microbial community composition and abundance in time points 2 and 3 were similar to each other. The major contributors of microbial community composition included, time of sampling, age, and ulcer positive. Color scheme; Red – time point 1, Green - time point 2, Teal – time point 3, and Purple – time point 4. All four time points are associated with a perturbation due to the swabbing