Low-cycle fatigue behavior of solutionized and aged WE43 magnesium alloys at room temperature

•The low-cycle fatigue life of T6 alloy is longer than that of T4 alloy.•T4 alloy shows cyclic hardening fatigue behavior, but T6 alloy shows cyclic softening.•Fatigue cracks propagate along PSBs in T4 alloy, but fatigue cracks propagate along grain boundaries in T6 alloy.•Compared with T4 alloy, the enhanced pyramidal slip in T6 alloy plays an important role to accommodate plastic deformation.