Plants rely on their microbiome to protect themselves from pathogens

Fungi and other filamentous microbial eukaryotes, i.e. oomycetes, cause many devastating plant diseases worldwide and are responsible for up to 10% of crop losses. Over the last decade, pesticide application, breeding for plant disease resistance or genetic manipulation of plant immune components have been primarily used to control microbial diseases. However, recent findings indicate that bacterial commensals living benignly inside or at the surface of plant root tissues can confer extended immune functions to the plant host, thereby restricting infection by filamentous microbes.