LAUSR

Plants differ in their resistance to soilborne pathogens. Tomato variety Hawaii 7996 is resistant to Ralstonia solanacearum — a xylemcolonizing bacterium that induces wilt — whereas the Moneymaker variety is not. Now, Kwak et al. demonstrate that the rhizosphere microbiota enables resistance to wilt. Transplantation of the rhizosphere microbiota from resistant plants supressed symptoms of wilt in susceptible plants. By comparing the rhizosphere microbiomes of susceptible and resistant plants, the authors found marked differences in microbiome structures and a more abundant flavobacterial metagenome in the resistant plant rhizosphere microbiome. The authors cultured this bacterium (Flavobacteriaceae sp. TRM1) and found that it supressed bacterial wilt in susceptible plants. This study highlights that the native microbiota could be harnessed to protect plants from bacterial pathogens through the development of plant probiotics.