Embracing complexity in plant-microbiome systems

Area of Science:

• Plant Science
• Microbiology
• Ecology

Background:

• Recent advances illuminate microbial roles in plant holobiont health and fitness.
• Key questions remain regarding plant-microbe interactions, impacting ecology, evolution, and agriculture.

Purpose of the Study:

• Explore unanswered questions in plant microbiome research.
• Discuss emerging areas and future research directions.
• Highlight the need for functional and comprehensive microbial assessments.

Main Methods:

• Emphasis on moving beyond taxonomic identification to functional analysis.
• Call for standardization of OMICS technologies and control of methodological biases.
• Advocacy for including understudied microbial groups (archaea, viruses, microeukaryotes).

Main Results:

• Plant microbiome research needs to integrate functional insights.
• Standardized methods and broader microbial scope are crucial for deeper understanding.
• Abiotic and biotic factors significantly influence plant-microbiome dynamics.

Conclusions:

• Future research should focus on ecological interactions and plant holobiont dynamics.
• Synthetic communities and computational approaches (AI, machine learning) offer solutions.
• A holistic systems approach is needed to analyze the complex plant holobiont.