Blood and semen HIV RNA viral load.

<p>Blood was collected and the HIV RNA viral load assayed the same way at both study visits (BVL1 and BVL2, respectively); semen was collected undiluted at visit 1 (SVL1) and directly into transport medium and visit 2 (SVL2). Participants with an undetectable semen viral load at both study visits were excluded from statistical analysis.</p

Clinical parameters of the HIV-positive participants at baseline, prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

<p>Clinical parameters of the HIV-positive participants at baseline, prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy.</p

Semen microbiome biodiversity in uninfected versus HIV-infected men over the course of antiretroviral treatment.

<p>In this set of two plots (<i>Panels A–B</i>), the solid circles represent HIV-uninfected men, whereas open circles represent HIV-infected men. Panel A depicts the higher richness (<i>i.e.</i>, greater number of unique bacterial types) of the semen microbiome in HIV-uninfected men, as well as the restoration of richness over the period of six months on ART. A similar trend was seen in semen microbiome diversity, as shown in Panel B.</p

Prevalence and proportional abundances of the 40 most prevalent semen bacteria in uninfected men and HIV-infected men prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

<p>Prevalence and proportional abundances of the 40 most prevalent semen bacteria in uninfected men and HIV-infected men prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy.</p

Rank abundance and the five most abundant semen bacteria in uninfected versus HIV-infected men over the course of antiretroviral treatment.

<p>In this rank abundance plot, richness is the distance the plot extends along the x-axis, and evenness is low slope. Extreme dominance is a high y-intercept. HIV uninfected is both richer and more even than the ART- naïve, but by 6 months ART, the relationship converges onto the HIV uninfected. The five top-ranked semen bacteria from each group are listed, with its respective group-level proportional abundance in parenthesis.</p