Towards Unraveling Macroecological Patterns in Rhizosphere Microbiomes

Area of Science:

• Microbial Ecology
• Plant-Microbe Interactions
• Environmental Microbiology

Background:

• Plants locally influence rhizosphere microbiome composition and activity.
• Rhizosphere community assembly is constrained by factors across spatial and temporal scales.
• Current knowledge is limited by single-location, single-time-point studies, hindering large-scale predictions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize literature and data on rhizosphere microbiomes.
• To identify opportunities and challenges in studying microbiome assembly.
• To explore the use of molecular tools for deciphering community assembly rules.

Main Methods:

• Literature synthesis and data collation on rhizosphere microbiomes.
• Utilizing advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics.
• Employing exact sequence variants (ESVs) with existing and new data.

Main Results:

• Advances in molecular biology and data availability offer new opportunities.
• Challenges remain in predicting large-scale patterns and understanding non-plant drivers.
• Exact sequence variants are highlighted as a key tool for large-scale analysis.

Conclusions:

• Deciphering rhizosphere community assembly requires integrating diverse data and advanced molecular techniques.
• Understanding large-scale patterns necessitates moving beyond single-site studies.
• Future research should leverage exact sequence variants to uncover assembly rules across broad spatial and taxonomic scales.