Dear Colleagues,

Plant-associated microbiota are important determinants for plant health in the environment, with important implications for global geochemical cycles, ecosystem functioning and sustainable agriculture. Plant microbiomes include those microbial communities associated with the rhizosphere, the phyllosphere (leaves and aerial parts), and those found within plant tissues (the endosphere). Members of these complex communities, which can be bacteria, archaea and fungi, may assist plants in obtaining nutrients, promote its growth, and help plants to resist pathogens, inorganic and organic pollutants and adverse environmental conditions. On the contrary, these communities may also house harmful plant pathogens.

Thanks to increased accessibility to new sequencing techniques, the study of plant microbiomes by sequencing amplicon libraries of taxonomic marker genes, principally the 16S rRNA gene, has led to an enormous boost in our knowledge of the structure of plant microbiomes. However, functional studies from which it can be determined what the microbial communities ‘do’ when associated with plants remain less well studied. This is especially important with regard to increasing our understanding of how members of the microbiome aid plant growth and health when plants are faced with adverse biotic or abiotic conditions.

In this Special Issue, we seek original research and reviews which deepen our understanding of both the microbial structure and function of microbiomes of plants in natural environments or agriculture under different conditions.

Dr. Pieter van Dillewijn
Prof. Jaco Vangronsveld
Dr. Sofie Thijs
Guest Editors

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• Rhizosphere
• Phyllosphere
• Endosphere
• Plants
• Plant–microbe interactions
• Microbiome
• Microbial communities
• Sequencing technology
• rRNA