Fig. 3

Expression patterns of AhNFR genes in roots of Nod- E4 and Nod+ E5 inoculated with rhizobia Lb8. The time points included 0 h, 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 8 h, 16 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h and 144 h for AhNFR1A1 (a), AhNFR1B1 (b), AhNFR1A2 (c), AhNFR1B2 (d), AhNFR5A (e), and AhNFR5B (f). Asterisks indicate significant differences between E4 and E5 as determined by student’s t-test (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01). Letters on columns indicate the significantly different (p < 0.05) groups within E4 (black letters) or within E5 (orange letters) after post-hoc comparison