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Table 1 Growth performance of maize shoots under drought stress and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation (mean ± SD, n = 5)

From: Arbuscular mycorrhiza improved drought tolerance of maize seedlings by altering photosystem II efficiency and the levels of key metabolites

Treatment

MC (%)

DW (g)

R:S

SH (cm)

WC (g)

C (mg·g−1)

N (mg·g−1)

P (mg·g−1)

W

 NM

 

1.24 ± 0.30b

0.39 ± 0.08b

54.19 ± 3.04b

11.21 ± 2.91c

399 ± 4.81b

34.53 ± 1.08a

2.12 ± 0.35b

 AM

65.20 ± 14.94a

2.17 ± 0.18a

0.20 ± 0.02d

62.80 ± 2.61a

21.15 ± 0.69a

413 ± 3.34a

35.25 ± 3.51a

3.46 ± 0.44a

D

 NM

 

0.94 ± 0.13c

0.55 ± 0.11a

50.57 ± 1.73c

6.47 ± 0.64d

401 ± 1.54b

30.32 ± 3.29b

2.38 ± 0.90b

 AM

57.20 ± 10.25a

2.10 ± 0.18a

0.28 ± 0.06c

60.82 ± 3.25a

16.32 ± 3.97b

410 ± 5.96a

35.76 ± 1.15a

3.39 ± 0.51a

Two-way ANOVA

 D

ns1

ns

**

*

*

ns

**

ns

 I

**

**

**

*

**

**

**

 D × I

ns

ns

ns

ns

*

ns

  1. Different lowercase letters in the same column indicate statistically significant differences between treatments at P < 0.05 by Duncan’s test
  2. D drought stress, I inoculation treatment, W well-watered, AM arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation, NM non-mycorrhizal fungal inoculation, C carbon, DW dry weight, MC mycorrhizal colonization percentage, N nitrogen, P phosphorus, R:S root to shoot biomass ratio, SH shoot height, WC water content, ns not significant
  3. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01
  4. 1ANOVA outputs by nonparametric statistical test