Fig. 5
Effects of SynCom-NS inoculation on Cd uptake, translocation, oxidative stress indicators, and functional gene expression in two ecotypes of S. alfredii. a Effect of SynCom-NS inoculation on Cd bioconcentration factors in two ecotypes of S. alfredii. b Effect of SynCom-NS inoculation on Cd translocation factors in two ecotypes of S. alfredii. c Effect of SynCom-NS inoculation on Cd concentration in two ecotypes of S. alfredii. d Effect of SynCom-NS inoculation on H2O2 content in leaves of two ecotypes of S. alfredii. e Effect of SynCom-NS inoculation on GSH content in leaves of two ecotypes of S. alfredii. Horizontal lines marked with asterisks indicate significant differences between two groups, with the number of asterisks ranging from one to four, denoting P-values less than 0.05, 0.01, 0.001, 0.0001, respectively (two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test). f Heatmap of upregulated genes related to antioxidase, divalent metal transporters, and hormone signaling in two ecotypes of S. alfredii after SynCom-NS inoculation. Upregulated genes (|log2FoldChange|> 1 and P-value < 0.05) were identified using DESeq. Z-score transformation was applied to the abundance of selected genes. g Linear regression of qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq results. The fold change values for the RNA-seq and qRT-PCR of eight genes related to Cd transport are plotted along with the linear fit line. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r), coefficients of determination (R [2]), and the P-value (two-sided t-tests) are shown, respectively