Figure 4.

Analysis of Early Symbiotic Stages in Wild-Type and nfh1-3 Mutant Plants.

Roots of seedlings inoculated with S. meliloti 2011 carrying pXLGD4 (lacZ) were harvested at indicated time points and bacteria visualized with X-Gal.

(A) to (C) Root hairs and formed nodule primordia of wild-type seedlings at 3 (A), 5 (B), and 7 (C) dpi. Bars = 20 µm in (A) and (B) and 100 µm in (C).

(D) to (F) Abnormal root hair deformation and formed nodule primordia of nfh1-3 mutant seedlings at 3 (D), 5 (E), and 7 (F) dpi. Bars = 20 µm in (D) and (E) and 100 µm in (F).

(G) Quantification of different symbiotic stages at 7 dpi. Data indicate means (±se) for 12 plants. Significant differences between wild-type and nfh1-3 mutant plants are marked with asterisks (Kruskal-Wallis test, P ≤ 0.05; Supplemental File 1). IF, infection foci; eIT, elongating infection thread in root hair; IT, fully elongated infection thread in root hair; bIT, branched infection thread in cortex; NP, nodule primordium.