Towards Better Understanding of the Interactions and Efficient Application of Plant Beneficial Prebiotics, Probiotics, Postbiotics and Synbiotics

Abstract

Production and application of plant beneficial microorganisms (PBM) is now one of the most promising fields of research. The period of searching for easy to cultivate soil microorganisms, their characterization, and testing in controlled conditions was replaced by another one with studies on novel, more efficient and economic fermentation mode of production and formulations. Co-cultivation and formulation of compatible PBM and inclusion of various additives in the formulations become fundamental part of the overall production technology. Another, pivotal point of the new approach to understand and manage the functional and genetic role of soil microorganisms in the soil–plant systems, is the comparison between human gut microbiome and plant microbiome. Following the human gut example, new strategies for exploitation of PBM appeared based on prebiotic, probiotic, synbiotic, and postbiotic products. A previous analysis of soil physical/chemical characteristics, microbial community dynamics along the plant growth and depending on the climatic specificity is a part of the overall assessment on which approach will be most efficient. Here, we consciously do not discuss, but should mention, other important issues such as how to control the plant capability of attracting useful microorganisms, the role of core and hub microbiota, and development of multi-omics tools and interdisciplinary (or artificial intelligence) approaches of management of all soil–microbe spatio-temporal complex data. The advancement in the field of PBM is substantial but there are still largely unexplored options for “biotics” therapeutic treatment of soils and biotechnological optimization of microbiome functioning in agro-soil systems bearing in mind their extreme complexity.

Topics & Concepts