Roots Shaping Their Microbiome: Global Hotspots for Microbial Activity

Land plants interact with microbes primarily at roots. Despite the importance of root microbial communities for health and nutrient uptake, the current understanding of the complex plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere is still in its infancy. Roots provide different microhabitats at the soil-root interface: rhizosphere soil, rhizoplane, and endorhizosphere. We discuss technical aspects of their differentiation that are relevant for the functional analysis of their different microbiomes, and we assess PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based methods to analyze plant-associated bacterial communities. Development of novel primers will allow a less biased and more quantitative view of these global hotspots…