It is generally accepted that plants locally influence the composition and activity of their rhizosphere microbiome, and that rhizosphere community assembly further involves a hierarchy of constraints with varying strengths across spatial and temporal scales. However, our knowledge of rhizosphere microbiomes is largely based on single-location and time-point studies. Consequently, it remains difficult to predict patterns at large landscape scales, and we lack a clear understanding of how the rhizosphere microbiome forms and is maintained by drivers beyond the influence of the plant. By synthesizing recent literature and collating data on rhizosphere microbiomes, we point out the opportunities and challenges offered by advances in molecular biology, bioinformatics, and data availability. Specifically, we highlight the use of exact sequence variants, coupled with existing and newly generated data to decipher the rules of rhizosphere community assembly across large spatial and taxonomic scales.

人们普遍认为，植物会局部影响其根际微生物组的组成和活性，并且根际群落组装还涉及到一个约束层次，在空间和时间尺度上具有变化的强度。但是，我们对根际微生物群系的了解主要基于单地点和时间点研究。因此，要在大的景观尺度上预测模式仍然很困难，而且我们对根际微生物组的形成方式并没有受到植物影响力的驱动程序的维护缺乏清晰的了解。通过综合最新文献并整理根际微生物群的数据，我们指出了分子生物学，生物信息学和数据可用性方面的进展所带来的机遇和挑战。具体来说，我们重点介绍精确序列变体的使用，