Tipping the Plant-Microbe Competition for Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils

Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient in agroecosystems, and its indiscriminate application is at the center of the environmental challenges facing agriculture. To solve this dilemma, crops’ nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) needs to increase – in other words, more of the applied nitrogen needs to reach humans. Microbes are the key to cracking this problem. Microbes use nitrogen as an energy source, an electron acceptor, or to incorporate in their biomass. These activities change the form and availability of nitrogen for crops’ uptake, impacting its NUE, yields and produce quality. Plants (and microbes) have, however, evolved many mechanisms to compete for soil nitrogen. Understanding and harnessing these competitive mechanisms would enable us to tip the nitrogen balance to the advantage of crops. We will review these competitive mechanisms and highlight some approaches that were applied to reduce microbial competition for N in an agricultural context.