A growing appreciation of microbial diversity and function in combination with advances in omics (i.e., the study of large-scale biological datasets, including genes, transcripts, proteins and metabolites) and data analytics technologies are fueling rapid advances in microbiome research. One driving motivation—harnessing beneficial microbes and reducing impacts of detrimental microbes—is common to both humans and crop plants.

A growing appreciation of microbial diversity and function in combination with advances in omics (i.e., the study of large-scale biological datasets, including genes, transcripts, proteins and metabolites) and data analytics technologies are fueling rapid advances in microbiome research. One driving motivation—harnessing beneficial microbes and reducing impacts of detrimental microbes—is common to both humans and crop plants.