Insights into plant–microbe interactions in the rhizosphere to promote sustainable agriculture in the new crops era

Abstract

Microbes accompany plants throughout their lives, from the seed to the ripe fruit. Plant-microbe interactions have long been a focus of research, leading to thousands of articles that demonstrate their importance for agriculture. Here, we review these previous findings, and discuss future directions and prospects of application of plant-microbe interactions from various perspectives: the community composition, the pathways of interaction, the influencing factors of plant-microbe interactions, the methods and techniques for studying their interactions, and the potential applications of plant-microbe interactions. We propose that exploiting and utilizing of core beneficial microbes, artificial assembly of microbiota, in situ regulation of microbiome function will all become the essential aspects of future agriculture.