Fig. 6

Richness (a, b) and diversity index (c, d) of the bacterial communities associated with the rhizosphere and root endosphere of grafted apple. Different lowercase letters indicate significant differences by Kruskal-Wallis test (P < 0.05). Stars indicate significant differences by the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test. (* P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001). MH, M9, MB and MR represent the rhizosphere from Malus hupehensis Rehd., M9T337, Malus baccata Borkh. and Malus robusta Rehd., respectively. MHR, M9R, MBR and MRR represent the root endosphere from Malus hupehensis Rehd., M9T337, Malus baccata Borkh. and Malus robusta Rehd., respectively