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Editorial
. 2024 Feb 11;3(1):e172.
doi: 10.1002/imt2.172. eCollection 2024 Feb.

Synthetic microbial communities: Sandbox and blueprint for soil health enhancement

Mei Li  1 , Jie Hu  2 , Zhong Wei  3 , Alexandre Jousset  3 , Thomas Pommier  4 , Xiangyang Yu  1 , Yangchun Xu  3 , Qirong Shen  3
Affiliations
Editorial

Synthetic microbial communities: Sandbox and blueprint for soil health enhancement

Mei Li et al. Imeta. .

Abstract

We summarize here the use of SynComs in improving various dimensions of soil health, including fertility, pollutant removal, soil-borne disease suppression, and soil resilience; as well as a set of useful guidelines to assess and understand the principles for designing SynComs to enhance soil health. Finally, we discuss the next stages of SynComs applications, including highly diverse and multikingdom SynComs targeting several functions simultaneously.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) play essential roles in soil health improvement. SynComs applications for soil fertility restoration by improving soil structure or promoting nutrient cycling and bioavailability (A), for soil bioremediation through microbial synergy or by microbes in conjunction with plants (B), for soil‐borne disease suppression (C) and soil resilience improvement by microbial interactions or microbe‐plant interactions (D). The graphic was created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Principles for designing efficient SynComs to enhance soil health. (A) Keystone species and their “helper” species, (B) biodiversity, and (C) microbial interactions should be considered when designing SynComs to enhance soil health. The graphic was created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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