Fig. 1.

Effects of Bacillus amyloliquefacienes UCMB5113 on A. thaliana Col-0 seedlings. Five-day-old seedlings were placed vertically on 0.2× MS agar plates with 2.5 cm distance in between plants and treated with water, 10 µl (2 × 10⁷ cfu) or 25 µl (5 × 10⁷ cfu) UCMB5113 as a streak at 3 cm distance from the primary root of the seedlings. After 6 days of co-cultivation, the growth pattern of the whole root was analyzed. Overview of the growth promotion aspect of Bacillus treated plants (a), closeup pictures, where arrows indicate increased number of lateral roots (b) and the increased frequency of root hairs on primary and later roots and initiation of root hairs close to root tip after UCMB5113 inoculation (c). Root and shoot fresh weight and image analysis of primary root length, total number of lateral roots, and total root area carried out by the rhizo software (d). Values represent means and standard deviations (n = 16), where samples labelled with identical letters are not significant at p < 0.05