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Updated: Jun 25, 2025

Inoculation Strategies to Infect Plant Roots with Soil-Borne Microorganisms
Published on: March 1, 2022
Insight into farming native microbiome by bioinoculant in soil-plant system
Zhikang Wang1, Xiangxiang Fu2, Eiko E Kuramae3
1State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China; Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China; Department of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen 6708 PB, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
Applying beneficial microorganisms (BM) as bioinoculants presents a promising soil-amendment strategy while impacting the native microbiome, which jointly alters soil-plant performance. Leveraging the untapped potential of native microbiomes alongside bioinoculants may enable farmers to sustainably regulate soil-plant systems via natural bioresources. This review synthesizes literature on native microbiome responses to BMs and their interactive effects on soil and plant performance. We highlight that native microbiomes harbor both microbial "helpers" that can improve soil fertility and plant productivity, as well as "inhibitors" that hinder these benefits. To harness the full potential of resident microbiome, it is crucial to elucidate their intricate synergistic and antagonistic interplays with introduced BMs and clarify the conditions that facilitate durable BM-microbiome synergies. Hence, we indicate current challenges in predicting these complex microbial interactions and propose corresponding strategies for microbiome breeding via BM bioinoculant. Overall, fully realizing the potential of BMs requires clarifying their interactions with native soil microbiomes and judiciously engineering microbiome to harness helpful microbes already present within agroecosystems.

