Plant‐Microbe Interactions in the Rhizosphere and the Role of Root Exudates in Chemical Signaling and Microbiome Engineering

Microbial interactions within the rhizosphere are fundamental to plant health, influencing nutrient availability, stress tolerance, and pathogen resistance. Beneficial microbes, such as plant growth-promoting microbes (PGPM) in-cluding bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi, enhance plant resilience through mechanisms like nutrient solubilization, phytohormone production, and pathogen suppression via antimicrobial compounds and siderophores. Root exudates, composed of sugars, organic acids, and secondary metabolites, act as chemoattractants that shape the rhizosphere microbiome by recruiting bene-ficial microbes. Stress conditions alter exudate composition, enabling plants to attract specific microbes that aid in stress mitigation. The dynamic interactions between plants and microbes are central to sustainable agriculture, as they can reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Advancements in microbiome engineering have led to the development of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) tailored to enhance plant productivity and disease resistance. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of engineered mi-crobiomes to establish stable, beneficial microbial consortia that support plant growth under diverse environmental conditions. This review will discuss the role of microbial interactions in plant health, the influence of root exudates on microbiome composition, and the emerging potential of SynComs in opti-mizing plant-microbe associations for sustainable agriculture.