How plants and root microbes work together to overcome iron deficiency
© Milena Malisic, Charles Copeland
Iron is an essential nutrient for plant growth, but its availability is limited in many soils. In a new study published in Cell, led by Paul Schulze-Lefert (Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, MPIPZ) researchers showed that Arabidopsis thaliana adapts its root secretions to different soil pH conditions to recruit beneficial microbial activities. In particular, plants release distinct coumarins, specialized metabolites that interact with root-associated bacteria to mobilize iron through different mechanisms.
The findings demonstrate that bacteria-mediated iron mobilization is widespread among root-associated microbes from soils with diverse properties. The study provides new insights into how plants integrate environmental conditions and microbial functions to improve nutrient acquisition, highlighting the importance of plant–microbe interactions for plant adaptation to nutrient-limited soils.
Milena Malisic, member of the CEPLAS Graduate School is first author of the study that involves also several other CEPLAS members from MPIPZ, University of Cologne and IPK Gatersleben.
Original publication:
Malisic M, Copeland C, Amrhein A, Zhang P, Hashimoto M, Harbort CJ, Lee T, Tandron Moya YA, Van Dijck L, Kiel N, Kopriva S, Metzger S, Garrido-Oter R, Giehl RFH, Schulze-Lefert P (2026) Arabidopsis uses distinct coumarins and bacterial pathways for pH-adaptive iron acquisition. Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.09.030.
CEPLAS members highlighted in bolt.