Plant-microbe interactions under drought stress: Unlocking new pathways for sustainable agricultural resilience

Drought stress is among the most significant abiotic constraints on agricultural productivity, a challenge that is intensifying under climate change. Translating the microbial mechanisms under drought into a holistic and systemic strategy remains largely unexplored. This review addresses this gap by advancing the plant-microbiome holobiont framework, which integrates such mechanisms into a unified approach to enhance drought tolerance. The framework constitutes four interrelated pillars which include (1) microbes induced modulation of host physiology and molecular responses through nutrient cycling, phytohormone regulation, osmotic adjustment, biofilm formation, and priming of systemic stress resistance, (2) Root exudates as signal-rich mediators that dynamically shape rhizosphere microbial communities and facilitate the recruitment and activity of drought-adaptive microbes and (3) the evaluation of emerging technological interventions to manipulate the plant-microbe dialogue. These interventions include genetic engineering which enables targeted modification of root exudation patterns and stress-responsive genes to enhance beneficial microbial recruitment, SynComs combining functionally complementary microbes to improve water-use efficiency and nutrient uptake, and mGWAS studies to identify plant genetic loci influencing microbiome composition and interactions, supporting the breeding of cultivars that preferentially associate with beneficial microbes under drought conditions. While (4) modulation of carbon pool, nutrient uptake and resistance priming upon leveraging microbial functions. Explicitly integrating these pillars, framework offers a practical roadmap for transitioning from mechanistic knowledge to targeted advancement of resilient agroecosystems. Harnessing the plant-microbiome holobiont through this integrated approach offers an innovative and sustainable pathway to sustain crop productivity and soil health in increasingly water-limited environments.