Fig. 1

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrating morphology of soybean root segments. Tiny opening in the cortical cells indicated by red circle (a-c; 40–200 µm), intact inner cortical side of epidermis and cortex (d, e; 10, 40 µm), degradation and crack in the inner cortical side of epidermis and cortex (f, g; 40 µm), closing-up of degradation and crack in the inner cortical side of epidermis and cortex (h, i; 10 µm). Bar charts indicating the relative abundance of soybean root segments as mean ± SE (j; n > 5). Significant differences between morphology of soybean root segments are indicated using letters a-d on top of the bars following means separation using Fisher’s LSD and ANOVA to assess significance of the model (α = 0.05)