Predator-Microbe Dynamics Inform Strategies for Robust Synthetic Community Assembly

Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) hold great promise for enhancing plant health and productivity, yet their field performance is often inconsistent due to challenges in establishing stable populations within complex rhizosphere environments. Predation by microbial grazers, including protists, nematodes, and bacterial predators, plays a significant role in regulating SynCom engraftment, population dynamics, and functional outcomes, but remains largely overlooked in SynCom design. Here we review the ecological processes governing predator-prey interactions in the rhizosphere, microbial traits conferring resistance to predation, and suggest strategies to incorporate these defences into SynCom assembly. By integrating predator resistance as a design criterion, we argue that SynComs can achieve greater resilience and persistence under natural biotic pressures, reducing variability in SynCom performance and improving their functional reliability in agricultural applications.