Low concentration of Paecilomyces variotii extracts promote the growth and disease resistance of pepper

Figures & data

Table 1. Experiment design

Treatment	ZNC solution		Dosage of Rs suspension (ml)
	Concentration (ng/ml)	Volume (ml)
Control	0	10	0
ZNC5	5	10	0
ZNC20	20	10	0
Rs	0	10	10
ZNC5+Rs	5	10	10
ZNC20+Rs	20	10	10

Table 2. Disease index (DI) of screw pepper under different ZNC concentrations

Treatment	Disease index(DI)
Control (DI water)	39.72 ± 1.27 b
ZNC5	23.89 ± 0.49 c
ZNC20	53.33 ± 1.67 a

Note: The identification materials are randomly arranged or arranged sequentially, and each identification material is repeated 3 times, and each replicate is 10 seedlings. Different letters represent significant differences among treatments (P < 0.05).

Figure 1. Scanned image of pepper root system under different treatments. Control (a), ZNC5 (b), ZNC20 (c), Rs (d), ZNC5+Rs (e), ZNC20+Rs (f).

Table 3. Plant height, stem diameter, total biomass, dry matter yield and root/shoot ratio of pepper under different treatments

Treatment	Plant height (mm)	Stem diameter (mm)	Total biomass (fresh weight, g/plant)	Dry matter yield of shoot (g/plant)	Dry matter yield of root (g/plant)	Root/shoot
Control	125.36 ± 3.35 ab	3.91 ± 0.14 a	18.88 ± 1.44 ab	1.40 ± 0.09 ab	0.30 ± 0.04 a	0.17 ± 0.01 a
ZNC5	127.89 ± 7.17 b	4.13 ± 0.26 a	21.77 ± 6.99 a	1.67 ± 0.39 a	0.33 ± 0.07 a	0.20 ± 0.01 a
ZNC20	125.89 ± 14.93 ab	4.02 ± 0.51 a	23.02 ± 3.42 a	1.70 ± 0.06 a	0.31 ± 0.09 a	0.24 ± 0.01 a
Rs	117.11 ± 2.42 b	3.83 ± 0.26 a	14.04 ± 0.65 b	1.18 ± 0.20 b	0.22 ± 0.03 a	0.21 ± 0.02 a
ZNC5+Rs	120.43 ± 6.71 ab	3.96 ± 0.37 a	14.92 ± 1.16 b	1.29 ± 0.05 b	0.27 ± 0.08 a	0.19 ± 0.03 a
ZNC20+Rs	118.37 ± 10.11 ab	3.87 ± 0.18 a	14.38 ± 1.53 b	1.24 ± 0.06 b	0.24 ± 0.03 a	0.18 ± 0.01 a
Significant level (P)
Rs	NS	NS	NS	**	NS	NS
ZNC	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Rs*ZNC	NS	NS	**	NS	NS	NS

Note: Different letters in the same column mean significant differences (P < 0.05) among treatments.

Table 4. Root morphology of pepper under different treatments

Treatment	Root length (cm)	Root surface area (cm^2)	Average root diameter (mm)	Root volume (cm^3)
Control	259.0 ± 16.2b	70.8 ± 4.1b	0.7 ± 0.0b	1.4 ± 0.1b
ZNC5	304.3 ± 11.4a	85.3 ± 3.9a	0.9 ± 0.1a	1.6 ± 0.1ab
ZNC20	301.6 ± 18.8a	81.4 ± 7.0a	0.7 ± 0.1b	1.6 ± 0.1a
Rs	213.8 ± 4.9c	58.6 ± 3.7c	0.7 ± 0.1b	0.5 ± 0.1c
ZNC5+Rs	244.3 ± 9.9b	72.5 ± 4.5b	0.7 ± 0.1b	0.6 ± 0.1c
ZNC20+Rs	244.7 ± 1.3b	61.8 ± 3.0c	0.7 ± 0.1b	0.6 ± 0.1c
Significant level (P)
Rs	**	**	**	**
ZNC	**	**	**	NS
Rs*ZNC	NS	NS	NS	NS

Note: Different letters in the same column represent significant differences (P < 0.05) among treatments.

Figure 2. Chlorophyll content under different treatments. Data are shown as the mean  ± SD (n = 6). The results of two-way ANOVA was shown in the upper left corner of the figure: “Rs” represents the effect of Rs inoculation; “ZNC” represents the effect of ZNC concentration; “Rs*znc” represents the interaction effect of Rs inoculation and ZNC concentration. Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences among treatments (P < 0.05).

Table 5. Photosynthetic parameters of pepper under different treatments

Treatment	Ci (μmol mol^−1)	Gs (mol m^−2 s^−1)	A (μmol m^−2 s^−1)	E (mmol m^−2 s^−1)
Control	195.17 ± 19.85 a	30.00 ± 4.52 a	9.38 ± 2.29 b	2.68 ± 1.29 bc
ZNC5	157.83 ± 11.23 a	34.33 ± 9.40 a	12.57 ± 0.58 a	4.57 ± 0.48 a
ZNC20	162.33 ± 77.70 a	31.50 ± 8.64 a	11.42 ± 0.86 a	3.79 ± 0.70 ab
Rs	202.00 ± 34.65 a	25.33 ± 15.98 a	5.02 ± 0.57 c	1.48 ± 1.61 d
ZNC5+Rs	176.67 ± 32.00 a	27.17 ± 4.71 a	5.48 ± 0.93 c	1.70 ± 0.60 cd
ZNC20+Rs	184.50 ± 59.06 a	28.17 ± 8.28 a	5.63 ± 1.16 c	1.56 ± 0.38 cd
Significant level (P)
Rs	NS	NS	**	**
ZNC	NS	NS	**	*
Rs*ZNC	NS	NS	*	NS

Note: Ci, intercellular CO₂ concentration; Gs, stomatal conductance; A, net photosynthetic rate; E, transpiration rate. Different letters represent significant differences among treatments (P < 0.05).

Figure 3. SOD activity (a), GSH content (b), CAT activity (c) and POD activity (d) under different treatments. Data are shown as the mean ± SD (n = 6). The results of two-way ANOVA was shown in the upper left corner of the figure: “Rs” represents the effect of Rs inoculation; “ZNC” represents the effect of ZNC concentration; “Rs*znc” represents the interaction effect of Rs inoculation and ZNC concentration. Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences among treatments at P < 0.05.