Fig. 3: Microbial markers promote the growth of foxtail millet across different substrates.

A Phylogenetic tree of the 257 microbial markers associated with agronomic traits of foxtail millet. The outer circle represents the phylum level. The beta estimates of the microbial OTUs to growth and yield traits are plotted in the inner circles, respectively. The arrows indicate the strains tested in planta (B, C), including strains responded to six positive marker OTUs: Acid550 to Acidovorax OTU_46, Baci299 to Bacillaceae OTU_22228, Kita594 to Kitasatospora OTU_8, Baci154 to Bacillus OTU_19414, Baci312 to Bacillus OTU_25704, Baci429 to Bacillales OTU_381, and strains responded to four negative marker OTUs: Shin228 to Shinella OTU_37, Baci81 to Bacillus OTU_54, Baci173 to Bacillaceae OTU_19835 and Baci554 to Bacillaceae OTU_28133. The strains predicted to affect growth traits are validated by plate (B) and sterilized soil (C). Significance is determined within each pair of treatment and control via one-tailed t-test and the P-values are adjusted by Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) method. n = 41, 40, 38, 34, 43, 43, 44, 32, 21, 34 and 27 (from left to right) biological replicates in plate experiment. From Kita594 to Baci554, adjusted P_{(plant height)} = 8.68e−07, 1.02e−09, 0.07, 0.001, 0.49, 0.29, 0.03, 0.40, 0.001, 5.39e−06, adjusted P_{(root length)} = 0.012, 0.10, 0.40, 0.18, 0.01, 0.11, 1.14e−06, 0.02, 1.20e−09, 5.68e−12. n = 20, 32, 31, 40, 23, 20 and 23 (from left to right) biological replicates in sterilized soil experiment. From Kita594 to Baci554, adjusted P_{(plant height)} = 1.6e−07, 0.003, 0.018, 0.011, 0.98, 0.06, adjusted P_{(root length)} = 0.046, 4.4e−04, 8.43e−05, 0.016, 0.058, 0.15. *, ** and *** represented the adjusted P < 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001, respectively. The box depicts the interquartile range (IQR) between the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively and the line within the box represents the median. The whiskers extend 1.5 times the IQR from the top and bottom of the box, respectively.