Root exudate flux as a quantitative language of phytobiome assembly and stress resilience.

Root exudation is proposed as a quantitative signalling language for phytobiome assembly and stress resilience, with absolute concentration, release flux, and spatial gradients shaping microbial activation thresholds.

• Why it matters: Most work characterizes exudate composition but not the concentrations and rates microbes perceive, limiting predictive control of rhizosphere microbiomes under climate-driven stress.
• What they did: This review synthesizes studies from 2015–2026 (especially 2020 onward), evaluating exudate chemistry, biosynthesis, transport, uptake, and methods like HRMS metabolomics, stable isotope tracing, imaging, and kinetic modelling to separate relative from absolute quantification.
• The result: It concludes soil exudation is a net flux and recommends in situ microdialysis and reporting standards; however, compound-specific activation thresholds remain unresolved for predictive manipulation.

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