Microbes are essential for global food production as they sustain the health of our ecosystems and our bodies. From the soil beneath our feet, which harbours the most genetically diverse communities, to the human gut, microbial functions have global implications due to their vast genetic, metabolic, and physiological diversity. For today’s World Soil Day, Simon Law and Gupta Vadakattu explain how maintaining and enhancing a healthy soil microbiome is integral for the productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems and overall ecosystem health. #MicrobiologyEvents
Understanding the impact of soil microbiomes
Microbiomes form complex communities at key physical and functional interfaces. These include the interaction zones between the gut lumen and epithelial cell layer as well as between plant roots and the surrounding soil, generally known as the rhizosphere.
Within the rhizosphere, the soil microbiome can improve the health of the plant. For example, the soil microbiome can suppress the growth and persistence of fungal plant pathogens. These intra-kingdom microbial interactions, such as between bacteria and fungi, protozoa, or plants, are crucial for plant nutrition as well as overall ecosystem health.
Interestingly, just as plant-root interfaces serve as gateways for microorganisms between bulk soil and the inside of the root, the gut microbiome plays a critical role in human health. Both the gut and root microbiome ecosystems share striking functional similarities and are related to nutrient acquisition, host immune responses, and protection against pathogens.
Microbial soil interfaces and their impact on ecosystem health
To thrive at interfaces, microorganisms use various advanced strategies, as they rapidly sense and respond to host recruitment signals. For example, nitrogen-fixing rhizobia undergo a complex signal exchange which triggers these bacteria to colonise plant cells within the nodules. Thus begin leguminous symbiotic interactions that provide nitrogen for plant growth and crop production.
Additionally, by forming biofilms in soil pores and on particle surfaces close to the plant, microbes stabilise their communities and promote interactions with other microbes. These are often vital for nutrient exchange and disease resistance.
In soils with lower nutrient levels, microbial biofilms act as biodiversity hotspots. Within the biofilms, only a small fraction of the soil microbiome is metabolically active while dormancy helps community members survive long periods of unfavourable conditions.
A holistic approach to soil microbiology
Due to their importance for soil and plant health, a new paradigm has established microbes as fundamental members of the global ecology. Their critical links to the One Health concept are discussed in “Life at the borderlands: microbiomes of interfaces critical to One Health” in FEMS Microbiology Reviews. This article as well as the Thematic Issue “Rhizosphere: A One Health Concept” elaborates on how human health is interconnected with our environment and the (often unseen) organisms we coexist with.
However, to better understand soil microbiomes, a shift in perspective was necessary. Instead of focusing on individual species, researchers are now studying entire communities to define the complex soil and plant microbiome networks.
Integrating advanced omics techniques into the soil microbial ecology field has improved our understanding of microbial taxonomy, functions, and interactions. Combining genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics with advanced imaging, isotopic labelling, and modelling techniques helped visualise and predict microbial interactions across time and space. Such data significantly enhance our understanding of the complex microbial communities in their natural environments, all without the need for culturing the microbes.
It is now accepted that soil (micro)biology plays a critical role in plant growth, nutrition, and health. Adopting a holistic methodological approach and perspective helps us better understand how microbial systems function in agricultural and natural ecosystems.
A better understanding of the response and resilience of key functional microbiomes enables the developing of targeted interventions and the design of agricultural systems. Hopefully, these can cope with the changing environment and climate to improve global food production and soil health. For today’s World Soil Day, we should put awareness on safeguarding planetary health by focusing on the health of plants, animals, humans, and soil!
- Read the article “Life at the borderlands: microbiomes of interfaces critical to One Health” in FEMS Microbiology Review by Law et al. (2024).
- Watch the webinars “Ecology of Soil Microorganisms“, “Sustainable Agriculture“, “Ecology of Soil Microorganisms II“
About the authors
Gupta Vadakattu is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Waite campus in Adelaide, with over 30 years of experience in fundamental and applied aspects of functional microbial ecology research in soil and water ecosystems in Australia, Canada and India. He is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Microbiology, Soil Science Australia and Soil Science Society of America.
Simon Law is a research scientist based at the Microbiomes for One Systems Health (MOSH) Future Science Platform at the CSIRO, with expertise in the functional profiling of soil and plant microbiomes through advanced omics technologies, including metabarcoding and metatranscriptomics.
About this blog section
The section #MicrobiologyEvents for the #FEMSmicroBlog reports about events and meetings relevant to our network. These include world awareness days, FEMS-sponsored meetings or meetings of Member Societies and many more.
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