Fig. 3
From: Microbiota-mediated nitrogen fixation and microhabitat homeostasis in aerial root-mucilage
Aerial root-mucilage is the main site for nitrogen fixation in H. rotundifolia aerial root. a Illustration of the incubation set-up enabling the study of the transfer of aerial mucilage fixed (15N-enriched) N2 from the air to the plant. The plant types include no aerial root plant (NO-aerial root), aerial root plant without mucilage (NO-mucilage), and aerial root plant with mucilage (aerial root-mucilage). b–e Analysis of different H. rotundifolia samples for 15N2 enrichment in the aerial root (e), young (d), old leaf (f), and stem (e). Box plots show combined data from six independent experiments with natural nitrogen or replacing 20% (V) of nitrogen with 15N2 for 72 h. 14N2 and no aerial root plant (NO-aerial root) samples were used as negative control groups. Different letters indicate significantly different groups (P < 0.05, two-way ANOVA, n = 3). f Natural 15N abundance values from mucilage-producing plants (AR-M H. rotundifolia plant) and reference plants (no aerial root H. rotundifolia plant) sampled in XTBG each field. 15N values are given as mean and standard deviation (P < 0.01, T test, n = 6)