Plant-root microbiota interactions in nutrient utilization

Highlights

	● Soil nutrient conditions shape the root microbiota composition.
	● Plant nutrient-utilizing genes drive the assembly of root microbiota.
	● Root microbiota enhances nutrient availability for plants.
	● Root microbiota modulates plant gene expression to promote nutrient utilization efficiency through phytohormone.
	● Microbiome genome- and microbiome-wide association studies offer novel approaches to deeply explore the interactions between plants and their root microbiota.
	● Utilizing root microbiota is a promising strategy to improve crop nutrient utilization in agriculture.

Abstract

Natural plant roots enrich a diverse array of soil microbes, collectively known as the root microbiota. This microbiota interacts synergistically with plants, modulating various physiological processes, including nutrient utilization, which influences plant growth and health. Environmental nutrient conditions and plant nutrient-related genes have been reported to regulate the composition of the root microbiota. Innovative analytical methods, such as microbiome genome- and microbiome-wide association studies, have advanced understanding of the relationships between plants and root microbiota. These methods systematically reveal the interactions between root microbiota and plant nutrient utilization, providing a theoretical foundation for applying root microbiota in agriculture.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Root microbiota / plant gene / interaction / nutrient utilization

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFF1001800); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32430003 and 32322002); the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFF1000301); the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA28030202 and XDA0450000); the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (YSBR-078); the Hainan Excellent Talent Team, Start-up funds from Peking University; and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE .

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Haoran Xu, Weidong Liu, Yuhang He, Di Zou, Jinghang Zhou, Jingying Zhang, and Yang Bai declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)