Figure 1.

Plants respond to different environmental stresses and modulate their microbiome. (A) Plants not experiencing any biotic stress and having access to nutrients (green pentagons), release constitutively exudates (red arrows) that allow them to sustain a balance in the rhizosphere between pathogenic and beneficial microbes. (B) Upon infection by a pathogen (red microbe), the exudation profile of roots changes and stress-induced exudates (blue arrows) aid the plants in inhibiting pathogenic growth in the rhizosphere, while selecting at the same time for beneficial microbes. Some of these beneficial microbes when they establish themselves in the rhizosphere, can trigger ISR that can help plants deal with pathogenic infections in the leaves. (C) In the case of soil suppressiveness or “cry-for-help” conditions, there is establishment of beneficial rhizosphere communities that are further supported by the release of stress-induced exudates. Under these conditions, soilborne and foliar pathogens fail to cause disease. (D) Plants experiencing nutrient deficiencies (e.g. iron, nitrogen, phosphate) change the metabolomic profile of their roots to either make nutrients more available and soluble or to attract beneficial microbes (e.g. rhizobia, AMF, PGPR) that can help them deal with the nutrient deficiency. Font size indicates the abundance of beneficial or pathogenic subsets of the microbiota under different conditions. The figure was designed with Biorender (https://biorender.com).