Emerging Pathways for Engineering the Rhizosphere Microbiome for Optimal Plant Health

The increasing impacts of global climate change on crop performance pose a significant threat to global food security. The rhizosphere microbiomes intimately interact with the plant and can largely facilitate plants in growth promotion and stress resistance via multiple mechanisms. This review focuses on approaches for harnessing the rhizosphere microbiomes to produce beneficial effects toward enhanced crop productivity, including the use of organic and inorganic amendments, and microbial inoculants. Emerging methods, such as the utilization of synthetic microbial consortia, host-mediated microbiome engineering, prebiotics made from specific plant root exudates, and crop breeding to promote beneficial plant-microbiome interactions, are highlighted. Updating our knowledge in this field is critical for understanding and improving plant-microbiome interactions, thereby enhancing plant adaptiveness to changing environmental conditions.