Figure 4. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) plot of taxonomic biomarkers identified in the ocular surface microbiome of patients and controls. LDA scores are effect size estimates for a particular taxonomic marker in a specific group, with values interpreted as the relative magnitude of abundance compared to the other group. Specific bacterial sequence variants at the phyla ( A, C ) and genus ( B, D ) level were sorted based on patient eyes treated with eyedrops ( A, B ) and patient eyes without treatment ( C, D ) with healthy control samples used as the comparison group. Patient eyes treated with eyedrops ( A ) and untreated patient eyes ( C ) had greater abundance of  Firmicutes ,  Verrucomicrobiota , and  Proteobacteria  and lower abundance of  Deinococcota  and  Actinobacteriota  compared to controls. The relatively abundant bacterial sequence variants at the genus level are labelled for eye samples with drops ( B ) and without drops ( D ) in blue and controls in red ( B, D ). All LDA scores and bacterial sequence variants presented are statistically significant, with  P  < 0.05 (Kruskal-Wallis and pairwise Wilcoxon test) and LDA score ≥ 2.0 the criteria for meeting significance.