Fig 7.

Effects of colonization by S. Typhimurium and A. niger on maize plants.A. Frequency of plants distributed in categories according to their number of lateral roots. The higher percentages correspond to high numbers of lateral roots in the distribution of control plants. In contrast, distributions of plants inoculated with bacteria, fungi or co-inoculated with both present higher percentages of plants in categories corresponding to low number of lateral roots. Ninety-two plants were analysed for this experiment.B. Growth of plants according to their height in centimetres at 14 dpi relative to 0 dpi. Fifty plants were analysed for each condition. Bars represent average values of each distribution and error bars are standard error of the mean.C. Bacterial presence in maize flag leaves (expressed in cfu g⁻¹ tissue). Control plants and those inoculated with A. niger show no bacteria. Plants inoculated with S. Typhimurium show variable bacterial loads. In contrast, plants co-inoculated with bacteria and fungi do not present any bacteria in the flag leaf tissues. Sixteen plants were analysed for this experiment.