Plant Molecular Biology and Microbiome Engineering: Next-Generation Strategies for Multi-Stress Resilience

Plants face simultaneous abiotic (drought, salinity, heat) and biotic (pathogens, pests) stresses in natural and agricultural environments, which significantly reduce crop productivity. Traditional breeding and genetic engineering approaches have limited success in conferring multi-stress resilience due to the complexity of stress interactions. Recent advances in plant molecular biology and microbiome engineering offer next-generation strategies to enhance stress tolerance by leveraging plant-microbe interactions, epigenetic regulation, CRISPR-based genome editing, and synthetic biology.

The plant microbiome plays a crucial role in stress mitigation by modulating phytohormones, nutrient uptake, and defense responses. Engineering beneficial microbial consortia or host pathways can improve resilience while maintaining yield. Additionally, breakthroughs in multi-omics (genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) and machine learning provide novel insights into stress-responsive genes and microbial functions.

This Research Topic focuses on cutting-edge research in molecular and microbiome-assisted approaches for developing multi-stress-tolerant crops, addressing challenges in scalability, ecological impact, and translational agriculture. Contributions on CRISPR-edited crops, synthetic microbial communities, and AI-driven stress prediction are encouraged to advance sustainable agriculture under climate change.

We aim to compile high-impact research and reviews on novel molecular and microbiome engineering strategies to enhance plant multi-stress resilience. Topics include but are not limited to:

• CRISPR/Cas and omics-driven genetic improvements
• Synthetic microbial consortia for stress mitigation
• Host-mediated microbiome engineering
• AI and machine learning in predicting plant-microbe interactions
• Field applications of engineered plants/microbiomes

We seek to advance sustainable agriculture by integrating breakthroughs in molecular biology and microbiome science to develop climate-resilient crops.

While related topics cover stress tolerance, omics, or microbiomes, this collection is unique in integrating molecular and microbiome engineering with AI-driven approaches specifically for multi-stress resilience and practical, field-ready applications.

Keywords: multi-stress resilience, microbiome engineering, CRISPR, synthetic biology, plant-microbe interactions, omics technologies, climate-smart crops

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.