The attempt to manipulate a microbiome in planta to study the ecological consequences under field conditions leaves plants and their microbes surprisingly unimpressed.

Programmed cell death during plant development (dPCD) is crucial for Arabidopsis thaliana root defense, limiting microbial invasion and maintaining a balanced relationship with beneficial microbes.

Increasing the intra-species phenotypic diversity of a plant-beneficial bacterium effectively improves probiotic consortium functioning and plant growth promotion in agricultural systems.

Comprehensive analyses of host genetics, root-associated microbiomes, and plant phenotypes under two nitrogen treatments reveals host genetic control of microbe abundance which, in turn, affects plant performance.

A basidiomycete yeast closely related to fungal smuts is an antagonistic microbe in the Arabidopsis leaf phyllosphere that inhibits infection by Albugo laibachii via a GH25 hydrolase with lysozyme activity.

Simultaneously measuring the transcriptomes of both a host plant and fungal pathogen, co-transcriptomics, identified diverse, dynamic and independent communication mechanisms conveying information between the two organisms via discrete gene modules.

Defense-related selective autophagy mediated by the antimicrobial autophagy cargo receptor NBR1/Joka2 is diverted to pathogen penetration sites to restrict plant colonization by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans.

Analysis of epigenetic recombinant inbred lines of Arabidopsis identified four hypomethylated DNA loci controlling quantitative disease resistance, which is associated with genome-wide priming of defence genes without affecting plant growth.

A method to reduce the noise present in field experiments by accounting for heterogeneity in field soils.

Increased root exudation rate under combined drought and bacterial inoculation and bacterial growth stimulation by specific exudation metabolites support the idea of root recruitment of beneficial bacteria, especially under water stress.