Fig. 5

Mediation linkages among cigarette smoking status, oral microbiota, and cardiometabolic risk factors. (A) Parallel coordinates chart showing the significant mediation effects of microbial features. The left panel shows cigarette smoking status, the middle panel shows the microbial features, and the right panel shows the cardiometabolic risk factors. Association curves indicate mediation effects. Colors indicate the direction of the association, with blue indicating a negative association and yellow indicating a positive association. The gray background indicates the genus, and the white background indicates the pathway. (B) Oral bacterial genera and pathways with the highest proportion of mediators. TG, Triglyceride; CRP, C-reactive protein; HDL-C, High-density lipoprotein cholesterol; ACME, Average causal mediated effect; ADE, Average direct effect; * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001