Plant-Driven Assembly of Disease-Suppressive Soil Microbiomes

2024/06/10 by Jelle Spooren, Sietske van Bentum, Linda S. Thomashow +3 · 104 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Bacteria #Biology #Disease #Ecology #Genetics #Holobiont #Host (biology) #Microbial ecology #Microbiome #Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions #Plant Immunity #Plant tissue culture and regeneration #Plant-Microbe Interactions and Immunity #Symbiosis

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-phyto-021622-100127

published in Annual Review of Phytopathology 62(1), 1-30 (Annual Reviews)

openalex publication_date 2024/06/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Plants have coevolved together with the microbes that surround them and this assemblage of host and microbes functions as a discrete ecological unit called a holobiont. This review outlines plant-driven assembly of disease-suppressive microbiomes. Plants are colonized by microbes from seed, soil, and air but selectively shape the microbiome with root exudates, creating microenvironment hot spots where microbes thrive. Using plant immunity for gatekeeping and surveillance, host-plant genetic properties govern microbiome assembly and can confer adaptive advantages to the holobiont. These advantages manifest in disease-suppressive soils, where buildup of specific microbes inhibits the causal agent of disease, that typically develop after an initial disease outbreak. Based on disease-suppressive soils such as take-all decline, we developed a conceptual model of how plants in response to pathogen attack cry for help and recruit plant-protective microbes that confer increased resistance. Thereby, plants create a soilborne legacy that protects subsequent generations and forms disease-suppressive soils.

Citations

• Induced Systemic Resistance by Beneficial Microbes
• The plant immune system
• The Plant Microbiota: Systems-Level Insights and Perspectives

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• Acetylcholine chemotaxis in global bacterial plant pathogens
• Disease-Suppressive Phyllosphere Microbiomes: A Perspective on Microbiome Transplantation for Sustainable Agriculture
• Keystone Pseudomonas species in the wheat phyllosphere microbiome mitigate Fusarium head blight by altering host pH
• Pythium Root Rot of Wheat Is Not Suppressed by Indigenous 2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol–Producing Pseudomonads in Take-All Decline Soils

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• Microbial interactions within the plant holobiont
• Soil as a battlefield and a reservoir: linking soil components to the epidemiology of soilborne plant diseases
• The Extended Plant Immune System
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