Figure 1.

PGP effect on the OSR seedlings and Verticillium wilt disease reduction due to the treatment of the OSR seeds with log₁₀ 5 and log₁₀ 7 CFU ml⁻¹of P. polymyxa Sb3-1. (A) Abundances of the Sb3-1 on the seeds (left panel) and on the roots (middle panel) as well as fresh weights and germination rates (black squares) of the of the 2-week old seedlings (right panel) treated with Sb3-1 compared to the untreated control (control). (B) The Verticillium wilt disease severity (AUDPC; left panel), and lengths and weights (middle and rights panels, respectively) of the 8 weeks old OSR seedlings infected with V. longisporum. The labels of the bars refer to the different concentrations of P. polymyxa Sb3-1 in the initial inoculant used for seed treatments: log 5, log₁₀ 5 CFU ml⁻¹ of Sb3-1; log 7, log₁₀ 7 CFU ml⁻¹ of Sb3-1; control, untreated control; Verticillium, untreated seedlings that were infected with V. longisporum. Error bars represent confidence interval (P = 0.05). The asterisk (^*) denotes values that were significantly different from the non-treated control group values (P < 0.05) defined using pairwise t-test or non-parametric Mann–Whitney U-test, depending on the distribution of the samples.