The bacterial consortia promote plant growth and secondary metabolite accumulation in Astragalus mongholicus under drought stress

Table 2 Effect of bacterial consortium 6 on plant growth

Treatment	Root length		Plant height		Root fresh weight		Root dry weight		Root diameter		Aboveground fresh weight		Aboveground dry weight
Treatment	t	P	t	P	t	P	t	P	t	P	t	P	t	P
Normal watering
Consortium 6 VS control	3.68	0.003**	7.64	< 0.001***	6.08	0.004**	5.17	0.007**	2.63	0.03*	3.44	0.03*	2.93	0.04*
Mild drought
Consortium 6 VS control	0.63	0.54	5.23	< 0.001***	4.89	0.003**	3.18	0.02*	4.54	< 0.001***	1.39	0.25	3.55	0.01*
Moderate drought
Consortium 6 VS control	0.93	0.36	5.73	< 0.001***	2.37	0.056	2.82	0.05*	4.59	< 0.001***	3.15	0.02*	1.48	0.23
Severe drought
Consortium 6 VS control	1.02	0.31	3.68	0.001**	2.07	0.084	4.04	0.007**	2.74	0.009**	1.55	0.17	0.69	0.52

Note: Plant grew in greenhouse for 2 months, then subjected to drought stress for 30 days. Bold values in columns indicated significantly different at P ≤ 0.05 according to t-Test. ‘*’: P ≤ 0.05; ‘**’: P ≤ 0.01; ‘***’: P ≤ 0.001

ISSN: 1471-2229