Rhizosphere microbiomes can regulate plant drought tolerance

Project Co-ordinators: Dr. Jose Alfonso Gómez Calero (Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CISC), Dr. Weifeng Xu (Fujian Agriculture and Forest University, FAFU).Beneficial root-associated rhizospheric microbes play a key role in maintaining host plant growth and can potentially allow drought-resilient crop production. The complex interaction of root-associated microbes mainly depends on soil type, plant genotype, and soil moisture. However, drought is the most devastating environmental stress that strongly reduces soil biota and can restrict plant growth and yield. In this review, we discussed our mechanistic understanding of drought and microbial response traits. Additionally, we highlighted the role of beneficial microbes and plant-derived metabolites in alleviating drought stress and improving crop growth. We proposed that future research might focus on evaluating the dynamics of root-beneficial microbes under field drought conditions. The integrative use of ecology, microbial, and molecular approaches may serve as a promising strategy to produce more drought-resilient and sustainable crops.We are grateful for the grant support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFE0118100 and 2018YFD02003025), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31761130073, 31872169, and 31600209), a Newton Advanced Fellowship, UK (NO. NA160430), Fujian Province Education Department Funding, China (No. JK2017015), Research Grant of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China (No. KXGH17005), and European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Project SHui (No. 773903).Peer reviewe