A plant-microbe codriven perspective on the nitrogen cycle.

Nitrogen cycling is linked to tight plant–microbe coregulation, where plants actively steer microbial transformation rates, locations, and pathways through carbon allocation and root traits.

• Why it matters: The field’s microbe-dominant view leaves plants as passive sinks, limiting mechanistic models that could explain how N supply is synchronized with plant demand.
• What they did: The authors propose a codriven framework in which plants control N cycling by balancing “Outsourcing” that stimulates microbial N mobilization with “Do-It-Yourself” foraging, alongside chemical signaling and root trait deployment.
• The result: Reframing the N cycle as a control-based coregulated system provides a mechanistic basis to integrate plant traits into next-generation biogeochemical models, aiming to improve N use efficiency and reduce environmental risks.

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