Abiotic Stress and Belowground Microbiome: The Potential of Omics Approaches

Abstract

Nowadays, the worldwide agriculture is experiencing a transition process toward more sustainable production, which requires the reduction of chemical inputs and the preservation of microbiomes' richness and biodiversity. Plants are no longer considered as standalone entities, and the future of agriculture should be grounded on the study of plant-associated microorganisms and all their potentiality. Moreover, due to the climate change scenario and the resulting rising incidence of abiotic stresses, an innovative and environmentally friendly technique in agroecosystem management is required to support plants in facing hostile environments. Plant-associated microorganisms have shown a great attitude as a promising tool to improve agriculture sustainability and to deal with harsh environments. Several studies were carried out in recent years looking for some beneficial plant-associated microbes and, on the basis of them, it is evident that Actinomycetes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have shown a considerable number of positive effects on plants' fitness and health. Given the potential of these microorganisms and the effects of climate change, this review will be focused on their ability to support the plant during the interaction with abiotic stresses and on multi-omics techniques which can support researchers in unearthing the hidden world of plant-microbiome interactions. These associated microorganisms can increase plants' endurance of abiotic stresses through several mechanisms, such as growth-promoting traits or priming-mediated stress tolerance. Using a multi-omics approach, it will be possible to deepen these mechanisms and the dynamic of belowground microbiomes, gaining fundamental information to exploit them as staunch allies and innovative weapons against crop abiotic enemies threatening crops in the ongoing global climate change context.

Keywords: Actinomycetes; abiotic stress; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; climate change; omics tools; plant–microbe interactions.

Figure 1

The flow-chart represents a pipeline to study plant–microbe interactions for obtaining crop varieties more tolerant and resilient to environmental stresses.

Figure 2

Multi-omics approaches can easily enable the understanding of complex plant–microbiome interactions. Thanks to these approaches, researchers can unveil which microbes are present and their genetic information, the root traits, the gene expression profile, metabolites, volatiles, and spectra of both plants and microbes, also during the challenge with abiotic stresses. Integrating all the information obtained from the multi-omics approaches, researchers will also better understand and exploit the staunch ally and the innovative weapon against crop abiotic stresses.