ArticleAnnals of botany2025
Drought response of the maize plant-soil-microbiome system is influenced by plant size and presence of root hairs.
Article in Annals of botany, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of Soil Properties to Support Mycotoxin Model Development with In-Field Soil Sensing.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Genotype-Specific Interactions Between Wheat and Rhizosphere Microbiome Under Drought Stress.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Investigating GERMs: how genotype, environment, and rhizosphere microbiome interactions underlie heat response in maize and sorghum.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Effects of Irrigation Rate on Soil Bacterial Diversity and Lint Yield in a Jujube/Cotton Intercropping System.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Digging for meaningful connections: associations between root phenotypes and rhizosphere microbial diversity in maize.Plant and soil · 2026Article
- Investigating GERMs: How Genotype, Environment, and Rhizosphere Microbiome interactions underlie heat response in maize and sorghum.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Responses of maize roots, rhizosphere enzyme kinetics and prokaryote diversity to alternating precipitation: insights from a three-year field study.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- The role of maize (Zea mays) radicle root hairs in seedling establishment under adverse phosphorus and water seedbed conditions.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Influence of Plant Developmental Phase and Irrigation Level on Cultivable Microbiome of Maize Root.Biology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsWe have abundant knowledge on drought responses of plants or soil microorganisms individually. However, there is a severe lack of knowledge regarding interactions in the plant-soil-microbiome continuum, and specifically root-soil interface traits including the role of root hairs. Here we investigated how water limitation propagates in a plant-soil-microbiome system upon stopping irrigation. We used two Zea mays genotypes [rth3 and its isogenic wild type (WT), B73], differing in root hair formation, to elucidate the effect of rhizosphere extension under water limitation.
methodsFor 22 d, WT and rth3 plants were grown in a climate chamber, with irrigation stopped for drought treatment during the last 7 d. Daily measurements included soil water status, plant evapotranspiration and gas exchange. At harvest, root exudates, shoot relative water content, osmolality and nutrients, root morphological traits and transcriptomics, and soil microbial β-diversity and enzyme activity were determined. KEY
resultsIn line with a larger plant size, drought stress developed more rapidly and the number of differentially expressed genes was higher in the WT compared with rth3. Under water limitation, root exudation rates increased and soil enzyme activities decreased more strongly in the WT rhizosphere. In both genotypes, water level significantly altered microbial β-diversity in the bulk soil, particularly affecting fungi more than bacteria/archaea. The genotype affected only bacteria/archaea and was more pronounced in rhizosphere than in bulk soil.
conclusionsThis interdisciplinary study assessed how a short drought stress manifested in a plant-soil-microbiome system. Water limitation altered microbial (fungal) diversity in distance from the root surface. Genotype-specific stress-induced increases in exudation rates modified microbial activity in root proximity, possibly pointing to root hair functions under water limitation. Less intense drought responses of rth3 were confirmed at all levels of investigation and may be due at least in part to its smaller plant size.
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