Fig. 1

Effects of miR156 overexpression on drought tolerance and physiological responses in alfalfa. a Roots of EV and miR156OE plants under drought stress; b root length; c root weight; d stem basal diameter change under drought; e root/shoot biomass ratio; f leaf water potential; g Vcmax, maximum rate of rubisco carboxylase activity; h Jmax, maximum rate of photosynthetic electron transport; i dark adapted chlorophyll florescence, Fv/Fm, and j photosynthetic assimilation rate in well-watered (control) and drought stressed plants. Values are sample means ± SE, n = 4 individual plants except in ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘i’, ‘j’ where n = 5. ANOVA p values are provided in Additional file 2: Table S5.1. Significant difference in Post hoc Tukey multiple comparisons test is indicated with different letters. Letters in multiple time point data of ‘i’ and ‘j’ is analyzed separately