Harmonizing traditional and biotechnological approaches to engineer crop microbiomes: Enhancing resilience optimization

• Published in: Biocatalysis and agricultural biotechnology 2024-12, Vol.62, p.103433, Article 103433
• Main Authors: Afridi, Muhammad Siddique, salam, Abdul, Ali, Sher, Sumaira, Terra, Willian César, Ali, Baber, Muneer, Muhammad Atif, Santoyo, Gustavo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Drought; PGPM; Plant pathogens; Soil microbiota; Stressful agriculture
• ISSN: 1878-8181; 1878-8181
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bcab.2024.103433

Plants are constantly confronted with both abiotic and biotic stresses, significantly affecting plant growth, development, and ultimately reducing crop yield. These complex and dynamic stress factors constitute a significant challenge to global food security. Harnessing plant-associated microbiomes represents a key strategy for enhancing agricultural sustainability. In the current era, the field of plant microbiome engineering has acquired significant attention and holds vast potential to revolutionize novel agricultural management practices. Yet, many studies have primarily focused on addressing individual stressors, leaving the intricate interactions largely unexplored. Therefore, this work inquires into the classical and biotechnological and/or ¨omic¨ techniques to engineer plant microbiomes to overcome multiple stressors. Traditional methods such as soil amendments, selective substrates and organic agricultural practices for plant microbiome engineering, are evaluated. Other more direct and advanced multi-omics approaches, such as computational and synthetic biology, host genome manipulation, microbiome breeding and microbiome transplantation, are discussed. The combined effects of pathogen infections and abiotic stresses, with particular emphasis on drought stress, are also reviewed. In addition, the imperative role of plant-growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPM) as part of the resilient plant microbiome is also highlighted. Lastly, this work sheds light on the interplay between different organic agricultural and high-throughput advanced strategies, with the final goal of reshaping the plant microbiome and pave the way for sustainable agricultural practices. •Traditional or classical approaches accelerate the resilience of plant microbiomes.•Directly inoculating the rhizosphere or transplanting microbiomes has positive effects on crop yield.•Plant protection can be exerted by engineering the PGPM associated to plant crops.•Harnessing plant-associated microbiomes as a key strategy for enhancing agricultural sustainability.•Integrating advanced and conventional practices to engineer crop microbiomes requires more investigation.