Fig. 5

Colonization and drought resistance traits after inoculation of roots of wheat plants. a Top: Successful colonization by M. alpina, E. nigrum, and SynComs under drought stress (10% PEG 6000) of roots of CS wheat. Plants not inoculated with fungi served as controls (scale bars: 10 μm). SynCom-2 consisted of M. alpina and E. nigrum (scale bars: 20 μm). SynCom-3 comprised M. alpina, E. nigrum, and SynCom-CS (scale bars: 20 μm). Six biological replicates were measured. Bottom: The effects of SynComs on wheat root tips were recorded using confocal fluorescence microscopy (scale bars: 1 μm). b Growth profiles and root phenotypes of wheat in control group and 18 days after inoculation with SynComs under drought stress. Shoot fresh weights (c) and dry weights (d) of wheat plants in control group and 18 days after inoculation with SynComs under drought stress. A two-sided t-test was used for statistical analyses (n = 3). *P-value < 0.05, **P-value < 0.01