Physiological, behavioral, and genetic factors that shape interactions in the plant growth-promoting maize rhizosphere synthetic community.

The maize rhizosphere synthetic community (MARSc), a genome-enabled 31-member bacterial consortium from Iowa soils, increases maize biomass by up to 40%–50% under varying nitrogen fertilization.

• Why it matters: Root microbiomes are complex and hard to manipulate, limiting cause-and-effect insight into how communities assemble and promote plant growth.
• What they did: MARSc was built from 30 isolates plus Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and profiled for microbe–microbe interactions and biofilm formation across environmental contexts, alongside genomic and microbiome abundance analyses.
• The result: Nutrient levels broadly controlled interactions and biofilm behaviors, and biofilm gene annotations correlated with rhizosphere abundance without matching in vitro biofilm formation, while root application boosted maize growth under low nitrogen.

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