Model-guided design of defined microbial community reveals interactions underpinning plant growth and stress tolerance.

Model-guided design of microbial communities improved tomato growth and heat stress tolerance, with a key community outperforming others in field and controlled conditions.

• Why it matters: Understanding microbial interactions that promote plant health is crucial for developing sustainable agricultural strategies, yet designing effective microbial consortia remains complex and challenging.
• What they did: Researchers integrated plant phenotyping, microbial genomics, and machine learning to analyze 102 microbial communities across 301 tomato plants, using an Elastic Net model to predict community effects on biomass.
• The result: The approach identified specific microbial interactions, such as Sphingobium sp. and tomatine, that enhance stress tolerance, enabling targeted design of communities that boost plant growth and resilience.