ScienceJuly 30, 2026
rhizosphere
RY-zoh-sfihr
Definition
The region of soil in the immediate vicinity of plant roots where the chemical and biological environment is significantly influenced by root secretions and microbial activity.
Etymology
The word is a compound derived from the Greek word 'rhiza', meaning root, and 'sphaira', meaning globe or sphere. It was coined in 1904 to describe the specific zone of soil influenced by roots.
In the news
In this article, the authors used a rhizosphere microbiome dataset from eggplants to validate their software's ability to analyze microbial patterns accurately. It highlights the framework's practical application in studying real-world soil-root interactions.
LorMe: a unified framework for standardized microbiome analysis
Read the full article ↗Bioengineer.org