Relative abundance of the <i>nifH</i> gene in soybean root-associated bacterial communities of Z31 and HC3 at the flowering and seed-filling stages.

<p>CRt and DRt represent the roots of soybean at the flowering and seed-filling stages, respectively. CRh and DRh represent the rhizospheric soils of soybean at the flowering and seed-filling stages, respectively. CSO and DSO represent the surrounding soils of soybean at the flowering and seed-filling stages, respectively. Levels of the <i>nifH</i> gene abundance were normalized to 16S rDNA abundance. A value of 1 was assigned to the detected value of the surrounding soil of HC3 at the flowering stage (HC3CSO). The error bars represent the standard deviation of four or six replicates of soil or root samples and each replicate with technical triplicate. *Indicates significant difference (<i>P</i> < 0.05) according to the one-way ANOVA.