These Hardy Plants Have Figured Out How to 'Farm' Microbes in Their Soil

[Judi Lynn]

30 April 2024
By JESS COCKERILL

Modern agricultural science has brought us some super-powered plants, and as we humans are wont to do, we took full credit for these incredible crops.

But a new study from a team led by molecular microbiologist Jacob Malone from the John Innes Center in the UK has found we might not be the only farmers involved in selection of positive traits. Plants themselves are more than capable of tailoring their ecosystem to 'farm' their favored species of microbe.

According to the team's analysis, barley (Hordeum vulgare) – the crop behind much of the world's beer supply – carefully manages the communities of microbes surrounding its roots by the amount of sugar it releases.

In spite of industrial agriculture's aura of control, it turns out a major dimension of crop breeding has fallen under the scientific radar: the microbiome in the soil directly around a plant's roots, or 'rhizosphere'.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/these-hardy-plants-have-figured-out-how-to-farm-microbes-in-their-soil