Network-guided synthesis of antagonistic microbiota for suppressing maize stalk rot disease.

Pathogen invasion in maize increases network complexity and negative interactions, with potential biocontrol taxa enriched in the rhizosphere microbiome during Fusarium stalk rot stress.

• Why it matters: Understanding how pathogen invasion reshapes microbial networks is crucial for developing effective biocontrol strategies against plant diseases, yet this process remains poorly understood.
• What they did: Researchers integrated large-scale amplicon sequencing, network refinement, and experimental validation to analyze maize microbiomes under Fusarium stalk rot stress, identifying key antagonistic taxa and constructing a synthetic microbial community (SynCom).
• The result: The refined network-derived SynCom significantly suppressed maize stalk rot, outperforming controls in non-sterilized soil, and likely confers resistance through antifungal metabolites and host defense induction.