Abstract:

Rhizosphere microbes are selectively recruited and aggregated from the surrounding soil microbiota, forming a unique community influenced by both biotic and abiotic factors. These microorganisms, closely associated with plant roots, collectively form the rhizosphere microecosystem, which plays a crucial role in plant growth and development. In recent years, breakthroughs in high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic technologies have shifted research focus from model plants to four major staple crops, rice, wheat, maize, and potato, gradually unveiling the dynamic evolutionary patterns of rhizosphere microbiomes throughout crop life cycles. Studies demonstrate that the structure and functionality of rhizosphere microbiota show significant temporal heterogeneity across developmental stages. During plant growth, the alpha diversity of rhizosphere microbiota typically follows a parabolic trend (“low-high-low”), peaking during the vegetative growth phase. This stage-specific succession is closely linked to plant nutrient demands, compositional shifts in root exudates, soil environmental fluctuations, immune responses, and microbial interactions. This review synthesizes recent advances in rhizobacterial community dynamics across growth stages of four staple crops and their underlying mechanisms, providing insights for rhizosphere beneficial microbe research and microbial inoculant applications during crop cultivation. Future efforts should integrate microbiome engineering with agronomic practices to develop growth-stage-specific microbial amendments, thereby offering theoretical foundations and technical support for precise regulation of plant-microbe interactions.

Key words: staple crops, rhizosphere microorganisms, different growth stages, microbial community changes