Exploring the Corn Microbiome: A Detailed Review on Current Knowledge, Techniques, and Future Directions

Abstract

In their natural environment, plants are colonized by a plethora of microorganisms. These diverse microorganisms interact with each other and the host to form a complex microbiome community. A growing body of research suggests that the microbiome has a significant impact on plant yield or health by promoting growth, stress tolerance, and resistance to pathogens. Although plant microbiomes have great potential for improving plant health and productivity, studies on crop microbiomes, especially in corn, have only recently started to be conducted. During the last few years, progress in next-generation sequencing technologies has enabled an increasing number of studies of corn-associated microbiomes and their dynamics with the plant. The composition and differentiation of microbial communities are affected not only by environmental factors and agricultural management but also by host phenotype and genotype. Although challenges remain in understanding the microbiome, the combination of beneficial plant microbes, microbial community interactions, and the optimization of the taxonomic composition of microbiomes determine the overall health and fitness of the plant and thus lead to more sustainable agriculture. In this review, we present an overview of the current knowledge and research on corn microbiomes using traditional culture-based approaches and next-generation amplicon or metagenomic profiling, discuss results from these approaches with an emphasis on the influence of environmental and host genetic factors on corn-microbe interactions, and outline future directions and challenges in corn microbiome research. A better understanding of the corn microbiome diversity, function, and microbiology will contribute to the improvement of crop health and productivity. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Keywords

• corn
• maize
• microbiome
• review