Soil-borne microbes affect aboveground herbivorous insects through a cascade of molecular and chemical changes in the plant, but knowledge of these microbe–plant–insect interactions is mostly limited to one or a few microbial strains. Yet, the soil microbial community comprises thousands of unique taxa interacting in complex networks, the so-called ‘microbiome’, which provides plants with multiple beneficial functions. There has been little exploration of the role and management of whole microbiomes in plant–insect interactions, calling for the integration of this complexity in aboveground–belowground research. Here, we propose holistic approaches to select soil microbiomes that can be used to protect plants from aboveground attackers.

土壤传播的微生物通过植物中分子和化学变化的级联影响地上的食草昆虫，但是对这些微生物-植物-昆虫相互作用的知识大多仅限于一种或几种微生物菌株。然而，土壤微生物群落包括成千上万的独特类群，它们在复杂的网络中相互作用，即所谓的“微生物组”，为植物提供了多种有益功能。几乎没有研究整个微生物群落在植物-昆虫相互作用中的作用和管理，因此要求将这种复杂性整合到地上-地下研究中。在这里，我们提出了一种整体方法来选择可用于保护植物免受地面攻击的土壤微生物组。