The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

Author summary Determining whether an empirical pattern can be manipulated is a crucial step towards building a predictive theory. Our study aimed to determine the extent that experimental manipulatio...

A frequent goal of phage biology is to quantify how well a phage kills a population of host bacteria. Unfortunately, traditional methods to quantify phage success can be time-consuming, limiting the t...

Research on horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has surged over the past two decades, revealing its critical role in accelerating evolutionary rates, facil…

The metabolic activity of microbial communities is essential for host and environmental health, influencing processes from immune regulation to bioremediation. Given this importance, the rational desi...

Domestication has profoundly shaped human civilization and the genetic makeup of numerous plant and animal species. While the effects of plant domestication at the genetic and phenotypic levels are well-documented, its impact on plant microbiome remains less understood. Root microbiomes play crucial roles in nutrient acquisition, pathogen defense, and biotic stress tolerance, yet the influence of domestication on their diversity and assembly is still debated. Two primary hypotheses have been proposed: 1) the reduction in microbial diversity resulting from the domestication process, and 2) the diminished ability of host plants to control their microbiomes. To evaluate these hypotheses, we conducted a meta-analysis of multiple crops, comparing the root microbiomes of domesticated plants and their wild relatives. Our results indicate that the effects of domestication are species-specific and context-dependent, with most domesticated plants exhibiting increased microbial diversity and more structured communities, while others show no significant change. Overall, this study provides evidence that plant domestication does not lead to a uniform reduction in microbial diversity or a consistently diminished ability of plants to influence their microbiomes. Based on these findings, we discuss new perspectives and the need for future studies incorporating native soils and host genetic variation in such experiments, analyzing not only diversity but also microbiome function, and considering how root morphology might affect microbiome recruitment. Finally, we highlight the need for research on the potential adaptive or maladaptive consequences that introgression between wild and domesticated plants could have from a microbiome perspective. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.