Throughout their evolution, plants have established interactions in their below and aboveground tissues with numerous microorganisms that have closely co-evolved with them. These intricate plant-microbial interplays result in either positive or negative effects on plant nutrition, resistance to stressors, priming, survival, and even plant distribution. While pathogenic microorganisms can have a detrimental effect on plants and cause plant disease, non-pathogenic interactions are arguably more prevalent in nature. This Research Topic explores how plants differentiate beneficial from pathogenic microorganisms at the molecular, genetic, biochemical, and ecological level, and how these differential interactions contribute to overall plant adaptation and evolution.

The objective of this Research Topic is to contribute to the understanding of how plants differentiate beneficial from pathogenic microorganisms, allowing the colonization of their tissues by beneficial microbes but avoiding pathogen colonization by deploying intense defense responses. In other words, to answer the question: how do plants differentiate friend from foe? Furthermore, this Topic seeks to increase our knowledge of how beneficial microorganisms support the adaptation of plants to hostile environments that present challenges in the form of nutrient shortages, toxic contaminants, or extreme environmental conditions. This Research Topic will compile multidisciplinary studies that discuss the differential plant responses at molecular, genetic, biochemical, and ecological levels to the colonization by beneficial or pathogenic microbes, and the role of these responses in plant adaptation and evolution. Additionally, we hope to boost the publication of deep reviews summarizing the latest research about the plant response to mainly (but not exclusively) fungi, bacteria, viruses, and oomycetes with beneficial or prejudicial implications for plant adaptation and/or evolution.

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, short communications, and reviews involving fundamental and advanced applied studies on molecular biology, bioinformatics, genomics, biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. We welcome research on how plants differentiate between beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms, and how these differential responses contribute to their adaptation and evolution. This can include the following themes:

• Differential responses of plants to beneficial or pathogenic microorganisms.
• Differential responses of plants to microbial consortia.
• Plant response to pathogenic microbes.
• Plant response to beneficial microbes.
• Sensing and signaling of microbes in plants.
• Plant response to microbes and plant evolution.
• Metabolic response of plants to pathogenic or beneficial microbes.
• Genomics response of plants to pathogenic or beneficial microbes.
• Metatranscriptomic response of plants to pathogenic or beneficial microbes.
• Pangenomic response of plants to pathogenic or beneficial microbes.

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Frontiers in Plant Science

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