Fig. 3
From: Plasma-activated water promotes and finely tunes arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in Lotus japonicus
Phenotypic evaluation of mycorrhizal colonization after 4 weeks (early phase) in L. japonicus plants inoculated with the AM fungus R. irregularis and irrigated twice per week, alternating low phosphate modified Long-Ashton with PAW (1:4 diluted, light blue; 1:2 diluted, blue; undiluted, dark blue) or H2O (control, green). PAW was obtained by exposing deionized H2O for 5 min to atmospheric plasma (PAW 5’) generated by a plasma torch operating at 900 W. (A) The quantification of the degree of mycorrhization was conducted via the Trouvelot method. F%, frequency of mycorrhiza; M%, intensity of the mycorrhizal colonization; A%, arbuscule abundance. Vesicle abundance (V%) was also determined. Data are the means ± SE of 5 biological replicates. Bars labelled with different letters differ significantly (p < 0.05, ANOVA test followed by Tukey’s HSD). (B) Representative images of the colonized root apparatus of L. japonicus plants from the different condition groups. Fungal structures are highlighted in blue by ink-lactic acid staining. ar, arbuscule; fh, fungal hypha; ve, vesicle