Fig. 4

Heatmap representing the gene expression levels of pathway, module, or key genes associated with soil formation over 16 weeks. The heatmap is generated from selected KEGG orthologs using normalized counts from metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data. Samples are categorized by molecular analysis (metagenome and metatranscriptome), site (Pan de Azúcar-PA and Santa Gracia-SG), and treatment (in situ and plant) at the initial time, after two and 16 weeks. The color gradient represents the relative abundance of each gene, module, or pathway in the metagenomes and the corresponding transcripts in the metatranscriptome, ranging from low (blue) to high (red) levels. A comprehensive list of the key genes related to each pathway and module can be found in Additional file 2: Table S2