Fig. 6

Experimental design and processing steps. (A) The sampling plan included a total of 192 samples from two Italian regions, Sicily (n = 96) and Campania (n = 96), with the following experimental variables: three sampling times for each sampling region; post-transplant (n = 32), flowering (n = 32), and harvesting (n = 32); two tomato cultivars per sampling time, Ciliegino (n = 16) and Pietrarossa F1/Maraskino (n = 16); two sampling areas per tomato cultivar, open field (n = 8) and greenhouse (n = 8); and two crop management types per sampling area, organic (n = 4) and conventional (n = 4). (B) Main steps comprising the acquisition of tomato root endophytic microbiota samples, DNA extraction, 16 S rRNA sequencing, data analysis, and the proposal of microbial consortia for crop management (dashed line)