The perception of airborne chemical signals by plants can trigger reconfigurations of their metabolism that alter their biotic interactions. While plant-to-plant chemical communication has primarily been studied in the context of eliciting defenses to herbivores and pathogens, recent work suggests that it can also affect plants’ interactions with their rhizosphere microbiomes. In this perspective, we discuss the potential for integrating the fields of plant-to-plant communication and microbial ecology to understand the chemical ecology of plant−microbiome interactions. As an introduction for microbial ecologists, we highlight mechanistic knowledge gaps in plant volatile organic compound (VOC) perception and provide recommendations for avoiding common experimental errors that have plagued the plant communication field. Lastly, we discuss potential implications of plant VOCs structuring rhizosphere microbiomes, particularly effects on plant community and evolutionary dynamics. As we continue to discover links between plant metabolism and their microbiomes—from molecular to community scales—we hope that this perspective will provide both motivation and words of caution for researchers working at the intersection of these two fields.

中文翻译：

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整合植物间交流和根际微生物动力学：生态和进化意义以及对实验严谨性的呼吁

植物对空气中化学信号的感知可以触发其新陈代谢的重新配置，从而改变它们的生物相互作用。虽然植物间的化学通讯主要是在引发对食草动物和病原体的防御的背景下进行研究，但最近的研究表明它也可以影响植物与其根际微生物群落的相互作用。从这个角度来看，我们讨论了整合植物间交流和微生物生态学领域以了解植物-微生物组相互作用的化学生态学的潜力。作为微生物生态学家的介绍，我们强调了植物挥发性有机化合物 (VOC) 感知的机械知识差距，并提供了避免困扰植物传播领域的常见实验错误的建议。最后，我们讨论了植物 VOC 构建根际微生物组的潜在影响，特别是对植物群落和进化动力学的影响。随着我们继续发现植物代谢与其微生物组之间的联系——从分子到群落尺度——我们希望这种观点能为在这两个领域的交叉领域工作的研究人员提供动力和警告。