Direction of associations of common direct neighbor to the taxon Escherichia-Shigella between the PBS + B. afzelii and E. coli + B. afzelii groups. Red edges indicate positive co-occurrence associations in both groups. Rarified table of ASVs, used to measure the alpha and beta diversity, and taxonomic table were obtained from 16S rRNA gene sequences from ticks fed on mock-immunized and B. afzelii -infected mice ( n = 10 individual larvae) and E. coli -immunized and B. afzelii -infected mice ( n = 8 individual larvae). Nodes of co-occurrence networks and sub-networks represent bacterial taxa and edges stand for co-occurrence correlation (SparCC > 0.75 or < – 0.75). Node size is proportional to the eigenvector centrality value and node color is based on the modularity class. Thus, nodes with the same color belong to the same cluster. Positive and negative interactions between co-occurring bacteria are represented by the dark red and green edges, respectively. Only nodes with at least one connecting edge are displayed
