Summary
This paper, published in Microbiome in 2018, reviews and synthesises evidence on how the domestication of crop plants has shaped associated microbial communities, particularly in the rhizosphere and root endosphere. It likely argues that selective breeding for agronomic traits has inadvertently reduced or altered the plant's capacity to recruit and maintain beneficial soil microbiota compared with wild ancestors. The work has relevance for understanding how modern cultivar development may have compromised plant-microbiome relationships that underpin nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and soil health.
UK applicability
Although the research is international in scope, the findings are broadly applicable to UK arable systems where modern high-yielding varieties of wheat, barley, and other crops are grown, raising questions about whether breeding programmes should reincorporate traits that support beneficial microbiome recruitment.
Key measures
Rhizosphere microbial community composition and diversity; differences between domesticated cultivars and wild relatives; potentially 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data or meta-analysis of published microbiome datasets
Outcomes reported
The study likely examined differences in rhizosphere and/or endosphere microbial communities between domesticated crop varieties and their wild progenitors, reporting on how selective breeding during domestication has altered plant-microbiome interactions. Key comparisons probably involved diversity indices, microbial community composition, and potentially functional traits of the microbiome across domesticated and wild genotypes.
Topic tags
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