Fig 2 -

AM colonization rate (A) and AM dependency (B) in E. maackii under water deficit. AM: AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

Fig 4 -

Effect of AM inoculation on biomass of shoot (A), root (B) and total (C) and root/shoot ratio (D) of E. maackii under water deficit. AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; AMF: effect of AM inoculation; drought: effect of water deficit; AMF×drought: effect of interaction of AM inoculation and water deficit treatment; NS: no significant effect; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

Fig 7 -

Effect of AM inoculation on SOD (A, B), POD (C, D) and CAT (E, F) activities in shoot and root of E. maackii under water deficit. AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; AMF: effect of AM inoculation; drought: effect of water deficit; AMF×drought: effect of interaction of AM inoculation and water deficit treatment; NS: no significant effect; *: P ≤ 0.05; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

Fig 5 -

Effect of AM inoculation on gas exchange indexes, Pn (A), Gs (B), Ci (C) and E (D) of E. maackii under water deficit. AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; AMF: effect of AM inoculation; drought: effect of water deficit; AMF×drought: effect of interaction of AM inoculation and water deficit treatment; NS: no significant effect; *: P ≤ 0.05; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

Detail on the statistical analyses.

(DOC)</p

Fig 1 -

AM structures detected in mycorrhizal root (A) and root of non-mycorrhizal seedlings (B). a: spore; b: vesicle; c: hypha; d: arbuscule.</p

Fig 3 -

Effect of AM inoculation on plant height (A) and SPAD (B) of E. maackii under water deficit. AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; AMF: effect of AM inoculation; drought: effect of water deficit; AMF×drought: effect of interaction of AM inoculation and water deficit treatment; *: P ≤ 0.05; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

PCA results.

AM inoculated treatment; NM: Uninoculated treatment.</p

Fig 6 -

Effect of AM inoculation on chlorophyll fluorescence indexes, qN (A), qP (B), Fv/Fm (C) and ΦPSII (D) of E. maackii under water deficit. AM inoculated treatment; NM: uninoculated treatment; AMF: effect of AM inoculation; drought: effect of water deficit; AMF×drought: effect of interaction of AM inoculation and water deficit treatment; *: P ≤ 0.05; **: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p

AMF colonization rate in <i>E</i>. <i>maackii</i> seedlings.

**: P ≤ 0.01. Means with a letter in common within each variable can’t be considered different at P ≤ 0.05.</p