Vulnerability of soil food webs to chemical pollution and climate change.

Soil food webs are critical for maintaining ecosystem functions but are challenged by various stressors including climate change, habitat destruction and pollution. Although complex multitrophic networks can, in theory, buffer environmental stress, the effects of anthropogenic chemicals on soil food webs under climate change remain poorly understood. Here we propose that the effects of chemical pollution on soil communities have been largely underestimated, particularly for climate change-affected ecosystems.

Microbiome-facilitated plant nutrient acquisition.

Plants and microbiomes have co-evolved for millennia. Through this co-evolution, microbiomes have become essential for plant nutrient acquisition, which involves plant signaling, microbial sensing, and acquiring and sharing nutrients. In this review, we synthesize recent advancements in the complex associations of molecular, physiological, and eco-evolutionary mechanisms that underpin microbe-facilitated plant nutrient uptake.

Drought-induced plant microbiome and metabolic enrichments improve drought resistance.

Plant-microbiome interactions are crucial in maintaining plant health and productivity under stress; however, little is known about these interactions under drought. Here, using wheat as a model, we combine genomics and culture-dependent methods to investigate the interactions between the soil, root, and rhizosphere microbiomes with rhizosphere metabolomes and plant phenotypes. We find that drought conditions promote microbial colonization in plant microbiomes, enriching Streptomyces coeruleorubidus and Leifsonia shinshuensis, while also increasing 4-oxoproline levels in the rhizosphere, potentially attracting S.

A Large Fraction of Soil Microbial Taxa Is Sensitive to Experimental Warming.

Global warming is expected to significantly impact the soil fungal and bacterial microbiomes, yet the predominant ecological response of microbial taxa-whether an increase, decrease, or no change-remains unclear. It is also unknown whether microbial taxa from different evolutionary lineages exhibit common patterns and what factors drive these changes. Here, we analyzed three mid-term (> 5 years) warming experiments across contrasting dryland and temperate-boreal ecosystems, encompassing over 500 topsoil samples collected across multiple time points.

Plant pathogens, microbiomes, and soil health.

Healthy soil is vital for ecosystem sustainability and global food security. However, anthropogenic activities that promote intensive agriculture, landscape and biodiversity homogenization, and climate change disrupt soil health. The soil microbiome is a critical component of healthy soils, and increasing evidence suggests that soils with low diversity or homogenized microbial systems are more susceptible to soil pathogen invasion, but the extent and mechanisms that increase the threat of pathogen invasion (i.

A hybrid PKI and spiking neural network approach for enhancing security and energy efficiency in IoMT-based healthcare 5.0.

In the rapidly evolving field of healthcare 5.0, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is expected to be an enabler that allows smart medical devices to collaborate and communicate with healthcare networks to speed up procedures, enhance care, and improve disease management. However, one of the critical issues for these networks still remains the secure and energy-efficient transmission of sensitive patient data.

Unravelling Changes in the Pinus radiata Root and Soil Microbiomes as a Function of Aridity.

Increased aridity is emerging as a key impact of climate change in terrestrial ecosystems globally. Forest biomes are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of changing environmental conditions due to their long-lived and sessile nature. Microbiomes have coevolved with plants under changing environmental conditions with shared fitness outcomes.

Integrating ecological and evolutionary frameworks for SynCom success.

Use of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) is a promising approach that harnesses nature-based solutions to support soil fertility and food security, mitigate climate change impacts, and restore terrestrial ecosystems. Several microbial products are in the market, and many others are at different stages of development and commercialization. Yet, we are still far from being able to fully harness the potential and successful applications of such biotechnological tools.

Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and live cell extrusion contribute to measles virus release from human airway epithelia.

Measles virus (MeV) is a highly contagious respiratory virus transmitted via aerosols. To understand how MeV exits the airways of an infected host, we use unpassaged primary cultures of human airway epithelial cells (HAE). MeV typically remains cell-associated in HAE and forms foci of infection, termed infectious centers, by directly spreading cell-to-cell.

Environmental microbiome, human fungal pathogens, and antimicrobial resistance.

Traditionally, antifungal resistance (AFR) has received much less attention compared with bacterial resistance to antibiotics. However, global changes, pandemics, and emerging new fungal infections have highlighted global health consequences of AFR. The recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified fungal priority pathogens, and recognised AFR among the greatest global health threats.

Scientists' call to action: Microbes, planetary health, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and protists, are essential to life on Earth and the functioning of the biosphere. Here, we discuss the key roles of microorganisms in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting recent and emerging advances in microbial research and technology that can facilitate our transition toward a sustainable future. Given the central role of microorganisms in the biochemical processing of elements, synthesizing new materials, supporting human health, and facilitating life in managed and natural landscapes, microbial research and technologies are directly or indirectly relevant for achieving each of the SDGs.

Aboveground and belowground biodiversity have complementary effects on ecosystem functions across global grasslands.

Grasslands are integral to maintaining biodiversity and key ecosystem services and are under threat from climate change. Plant and soil microbial diversity, and their interactions, support the provision of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, it remains virtually unknown whether plant and soil microbial diversity explain a unique portion of total variation or shared contributions to supporting multifunctionality across global grasslands.

Plant species and associated root nutritional traits influence soil dominant bacteria in coastal wetlands across China.

Climate and edaphic properties drive the biogeographic distribution of dominant soil microbial phylotypes in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the impact of plant species and their root nutritional traits on microbial distribution in coastal wetlands remains unclear. Here, we investigated the nutritional traits of 100 halophyte root samples and the bacterial communities in the corresponding soil samples from coastal wetlands across eastern China.

Harnessing co-evolutionary interactions between plants and Streptomyces to combat drought stress.

Streptomyces is a drought-tolerant bacterial genus in soils, which forms close associations with plants to provide host resilience to drought stress. Here we synthesize the emerging research that illuminates the multifaceted interactions of Streptomyces spp. in both plant and soil environments.

The abundant fraction of soil microbiomes regulates the rhizosphere function in crop wild progenitors.

The rhizosphere influence on the soil microbiome and function of crop wild progenitors (CWPs) remains virtually unknown, despite its relevance to develop microbiome-oriented tools in sustainable agriculture. Here, we quantified the rhizosphere influence-a comparison between rhizosphere and bulk soil samples-on bacterial, fungal, protists and invertebrate communities and on soil multifunctionality across nine CWPs at their sites of origin. Overall, rhizosphere influence was higher for abundant taxa across the four microbial groups and had a positive influence on rhizosphere soil organic C and nutrient contents compared to bulk soils.

Dryland microbiomes reveal community adaptations to desertification and climate change.

Drylands account for 45% of the Earth's land area, supporting ~40% of the global population. These regions support some of the most extreme environments on Earth, characterized by extreme temperatures, low and variable rainfall, and low soil fertility. In these biomes, microorganisms provide vital ecosystem services and have evolved distinctive adaptation strategies to endure and flourish in the extreme.

Microbial species pool-mediated diazotrophic community assembly in crop microbiomes during plant development.

Plant-associated diazotrophs strongly relate to plant nitrogen (N) supply and growth. However, our knowledge of diazotrophic community assembly and microbial N metabolism in plant microbiomes is largely limited. Here we examined the assembly and temporal dynamics of diazotrophic communities across multiple compartments (soils, epiphytic and endophytic niches of root and leaf, and grain) of three cereal crops (maize, wheat, and barley) and identified the potential N-cycling pathways in phylloplane microbiomes.

Streptomyces-triggered coordination between rhizosphere microbiomes and plant transcriptome enables watermelon Fusarium wilt resistance.

The use of microbial inoculant is a promising strategy to improve plant health, but their efficiency often faces challenges due to difficulties in successful microbial colonization in soil environments. To this end, the application of biostimulation products derived from microbes is expected to resolve these barriers via direct interactions with plants or soil pathogens. However, their effectiveness and mechanisms for promoting plant growth and disease resistance remain elusive.