Figure 4.

Effect of inoculation with ZS-3 on ion uptake in Arabidopsis thaliana. Na⁺ accumulation (A), K⁺ production (B), and the K⁺/Na⁺ ratio (C) in Arabidopsis thaliana roots and leaves were measured at 14 days after inoculation with strain ZS-3 in the absence or presence of 100 mM NaCl. The expression levels of the Arabidopsis thaliana defense-related genes NHX1 (D), AVP1 (E) and HKT1 (F) were quantified by qRT–PCR at days 3, 5 and 8 after inoculation with strain ZS-3. Arabidopsis thaliana inoculated with inactivated bacterial dilutions was used as a control. The results are the means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments. Asterisks indicate significant differences between treatments according to Student’s t-test (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001).