The rhizosphere microbiome: functions, dynamics, and role in plant protection

Intensive agriculture requires large inputs of chemicals to avoid losses caused by pathogen infections. Exploring the rhizosphere of plants, which is an area with enormous abundance and diversity of microorganisms, represents a promising strategy to protect plants from pathogens in a sustainable way. Recent studies revealed the importance of soil microbiome in the process of natural plant defense and how current management practices can interfere in the dynamics of these microbial communities shaping a protective microbiome. This review emphasizes the main findings related to changes in rhizosphere microbiome composition and functions during plant infection by soilborne pathogens. Understanding plant-microbiome interactions in the rhizosphere is key to develop microbiome-based strategies for assembling beneficial protective resident microbial communities in production systems.