Jun-Hee Jung, Frank Reis, Christina Richards, Oliver Bossdorf

Plant microbiomes have become one of the hottest topics in plant biology. Driven by the increased availability of metagenome sequencing methods, analyses of plant-associated microbiomes have been skyrocketing during the last decade. They have generally taken one of two main perspectives: (1) a focus on the microbiome itself, where researchers describe microbiome diversity and attempt to understand its drivers, or (2) a focus on the consequences of microbiomes, where researchers analyse effects of microbiomes on plants. We briefly discuss these two perspectives, and we argue that for both a genotype-by-environment (G x E) framework will be key for achieving a deeper and more general understanding of plant microbiomes.