Microbially Mediated Plant Nutrition: Host–Microbe Crosstalk and Rhizosphere Microbiome Feedbacks

Throughout evolutionary history, plants and their microbial partners have developed highly specialized strategies to acquire nutrients under some of the planet’s most challenging conditions, including environmental stress and resource scarcity. Harnessing this biological legacy has become increasingly relevant to modern agriculture as efforts intensify to improve nutrient-use efficiency, reduce reliance on external inputs, and advance low-carbon and sustainable production. Beneficial microorganisms may also support crop biofortification with nutritionally relevant trace elements, linking plant nutrition to the broader One Health framework. The rapid expansion of bioinoculant research has renewed interest in microbial biofertilization and biostimulation, while revealing that nutritional benefits often emerge from multiple interacting mechanisms. Yet microbial colonization and putative beneficial traits do not necessarily translate into measurable nutritional gains, as their expression depends on host, nutritional, and environmental context. Introduced microorganisms also interact with resident communities, adding another layer of complexity to their establishment and function. Accordingly, understanding how these processes converge to determine plant nutritional outcomes remains a largely unresolved mechanistic frontier. Advances in molecular signaling, multi-omics, and microbiome science now provide unprecedented opportunities to resolve these interactions across biological scales.This Research Topic aims to clarify the mechanisms underlying microbially mediated plant nutrition and their contribution to nutrient acquisition and nutrient-use efficiency. We seek studies that bridge microbial processes with plant physiological responses and agronomic performance, providing a more integrated understanding of when and how microbial interactions result in nutritional benefits. Contributions grounded in both established and emerging experimental approaches are encouraged, particularly when physiological, nutrient-balance, isotopic, or microbial evidence helps resolve functional relationships across molecular, cellular, whole-plant, and microbiome levels of organization. By bringing together complementary perspectives from plant physiology, soil science, and microbial ecology, the collection seeks to strengthen the mechanistic basis for harnessing these interactions in sustainable plant nutrition.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Microbial biofertilization, biostimulation, and bioinoculant design, establishment, persistence.• Host–microbe and microbe–microbe crosstalk, root exudates, signaling, microbial recruitment, and host filtering;• Microbial mechanisms of nutrient mobilization, transformation, acquisition, and nutrient-use efficiency;• Functional roles of diazotrophs, nutrient-mobilizing microorganisms, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, endophytes, and microbial consortia;• Isotopic tracing to disentangle microbial contributions to nutrient acquisition across fertilization gradients;• Microbially mediated biofortification, micronutrient acquisition, and shifts in plant ionomic profiles;• Interactions between introduced microorganisms and resident microbiomes, including community assembly, microbial networks, resilience, and rhizosphere feedbacks;• Physiological, biochemical, nutrient-balance, and microbiome-based approaches linking microbial function to plant nutritional responses and agronomic performance;We welcome Editorial, Hypothesis and Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Review, and Systematic Review articles. Topic editors: Cassio C. Thiengo, Ana Carmen Cohen, Maria Julia De Lima Brossi Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85439/microbially-mediated-plant-nutrition-host-microbe-crosstalk-and-rhizosphere-microbiome-feedbacks