REVIEW ARTICLE Molecular communication in the rhizosphere

Abstract This paper will exemplify molecular com-munications in the rhizosphere, especially between plants and bacteria, and between bacteria and bacteria. More specifically, we describe signalling pathways that allow bacteria to sense a wide diversity of plant signals, plants to respond to bacterial infection, and bacteria to coordinate gene expression at population and community level. Thereafter, we focus on mechanisms evolved by bacteria and plants to disturb bacterial signalling, and by bacteria to modulate hormonal signalling in plants. Finally, the dynamics of signal exchange and its biological significance we elaborate on the cases of Rhizobium symbiosis and Agrobacterium pathogenesis