Figure 2.

Nodule occupation by R. etli strains nodC types co-inoculated in bean plants representative of the Mesoamerican (Meso), Ecuadorian (Ecua), Peruvian (Peru), and Andean (Andi) gene pools. Nodule occupancy was defined as the proportion of nodules occupied by each R. etli strain nodC type, α (black bars), γ (gray bars) or δ (white bars), co-inoculated with a 1: 1 ratio in the following combinations: α with γ (A), γ with δ (B) and α with δ (C). The data are combinations of three independent co-inoculation experiments in which at least two plants of each accession were individually inoculated with a mixture of strains. Statistical analyses were performed with nonparametric Kruskal–Wallis H test. Letters represent groups significantly different (p < 0.05) from each other. Bars indicate standard error.