Siderophore-Mediated Interactions Determine the Disease Suppressiveness of Microbial Consortia

Soil-borne pathogens cause high losses in crop yields globally. The development of environmentally friendly approaches is urgently needed, but is often constrained by complex interactions between root-associated microbes and pathogens. Here, we demonstrate that the interactions within microbial consortia mediated by iron-scavenging siderophores play an important role in reducing pathogen infection and enhancing plant health. This study provides a promising and novel research direction for dealing with a wide range of microbial infections through iron exploitation, which is important for the colonization and infection of both plant and human hosts by pathogens.