Ensuring future food security and resource sustainability: insights into the rhizosphere

Liyang Wang; Zed Rengel; Kai Zhang; Kemo Jin; Yang Lyu; Lin Zhang; Lingyun Cheng; Fusuo Zhang; Jianbo Shen

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104168

Ensuring future food security and resource sustainability: insights into the rhizosphere

iScience. 2022 Mar 26;25(4):104168. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104168. eCollection 2022 Apr 15.

Authors

Liyang Wang¹, Zed Rengel^{2

3}, Kai Zhang¹, Kemo Jin¹, Yang Lyu¹, Lin Zhang¹, Lingyun Cheng¹, Fusuo Zhang¹, Jianbo Shen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Nutrition, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, PR China.
² Soil Science & Plant Nutrition, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
³ Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Split 21000, Croatia.

Abstract

Feeding the world's growing population requires continuously increasing crop yields with less fertilizers and agrochemicals on limited land. Focusing on plant belowground traits, especially root-soil-microbe interactions, holds a great promise for overcoming this challenge. The belowground root-soil-microbe interactions are complex and involve a range of physical, chemical, and biological processes that influence nutrient-use efficiency, plant growth and health. Understanding, predicting, and manipulating these rhizosphere processes will enable us to harness the relevant interactions to improve plant productivity and nutrient-use efficiency. Here, we review the recent progress and challenges in root-soil-microbe interactions. We also highlight how root-soil-microbe interactions could be manipulated to ensure food security and resource sustainability in a changing global climate, with an emphasis on reducing our dependence on fertilizers and agrochemicals.

Keywords: agricultural science; agricultural soil science; applied microbiology; biological sciences; botany; earth sciences; environmental science; microbiology; plant biology; plants.

Publication types

Review