Soil microbiota manipulation and its role in suppressing soil-borne plant pathogens in organic farming systems under the light of microbiome-assisted strategies

Soil microbiota plays a key role in suppressing soil-borne plant pathogens improving the natural soil suppressiveness. Microbiome disturbance triggers specific perturbation to change and shape the soil microbial communities’ network for increasing suppression against phytopathogens and related diseases. Very important goals have been reached in manipulation of soil microbiota through agronomical practices based on soil pre-fumigation, organic amendment, crop rotation and intercropping. Nevertheless, to limit inconsistencies, drawbacks and failures related to soil microbiota disturbance, a detailed understanding of the microbiome shifts during its manipulation is needed under the light of the microbiome-assisted strategies. Next-generation sequencing often offers a better overview of the soil microbial communities during microbiomes manipulation, but sometime it does not provide information related to the highest taxonomic resolution of the soil microbial communities. This review work reports and discusses the most reliable findings in relation to a comprehensive understanding of soil microbiota and how its manipulation can improve suppression against soil-borne diseases in organic farming systems. Role and functionality of the soil microbiota in suppressing soil-borne pathogens affecting crops have been basically described in the first section of the paper. Characterization of the soil microbiomes network by high-throughput sequencing has been introduced in the second section. Some relevant findings by which soil microbiota manipulation can address the design of novel sustainable cropping systems to sustain crops’ health without use (or reduced use) of synthetic fungicides and fumigants have been extensively presented and discussed in the third and fourth sections, respectively, under the light of the new microbiome-assisted strategies. Critical comparisons on the next-generation sequencing have been provided in the fifth section. Concluding remarks have been drawn in the last section.[Figure not available: see fulltext.].