Harnessing rhizosphere microbiomes for drought-resilient crop production

Root-associated microbes can improve plant growth, and they offer the potential to increase crop resilience to future drought. Although our understanding of the complex feedbacks between plant and microbial responses to drought is advancing, most of our knowledge comes from non-crop plants in controlled experiments. We propose that future research efforts should attempt to quantify relationships between plant and microbial traits, explicitly focus on food crops, and include longer-term experiments under field conditions. Overall, we highlight the need for improved mechanistic understanding of the complex feedbacks between plants and microbes during, and particularly after, drought. This requires integrating…

• NE
  NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre

  Award: NE/P01206X/1
• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Awards: NE/P01206X/1, NE/P011551/2
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Awards: BB/L02456X/1, BB/L02456X/1
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Awards: NE/P01206X/1, NE/P01206X/1, NE/P011551/2