Figure 5

L. camara endophyte consortium augmented ROS production and anti-oxidative defense in S. nigrum. (A) Young leaves of endophyte consortium-treated and uninoculated plants grown in presence or absence of 25 ppm As were stained with 0.05% NBT 4wpi and visualized under a stereo microscope M205FA. Scale bar = 5 mm. (B) ROS production in chloroplasts of plants treated with As and endophytes. Scale bar = 50 µm. (C and D) Total glutathione content (C) and GSH/GSSG ratio (D) of endophyte consortium-treated plants were compared with untreated plants grown in presence of As. n = 14. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.0001 (unpaired two-tailed t-test). (E–I) Antioxidant enzyme activities were measured in root and shoot of endophyte consortium-treated and uninoculated plants grown in presence or absence of As. Glutathione Reductase (GR) (E), glutathione S-transferase (GST) (F), glutaredoxin (G), peroxidase (POX) (H) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities (I) were plotted using GraphPad Prism5. n = 10 (each in 2 experimental replicates). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.0001, ns = no significance (endophyte-treated vs uninoculated; Two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test). Data are represented as mean ± SEM. (Df for As:1, for endophytes:1, for interaction:1, error:36).