{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,31]],"date-time":"2026-10-31T05:59:48Z","timestamp":1793426388035,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":112,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788998400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":252,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Discovery Projects","award":["DP240101821"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DP240101821"]}]},{"name":"Discovery Projects","award":["FT230100158"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FT230100158"]}]},{"name":"Australian Research Council\u2019s Industrial Transformation Research Program funding scheme","award":["IH200100023"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IH200100023"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05mmh0f86","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,14]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Although the potential of microbial inoculants for sustainable agriculture and environmental restoration has been widely recognized, their field performance remains highly variable and often unpredictable. Current research and development frameworks for microbial inoculants primarily focus on their plant growth\u2013promoting functions and metabolic traits, often overlooking the ecological processes that determine whether introduced strains can successfully disperse, access, and establish within the rhizosphere. Increasing evidence suggests that successful dispersal and establishment cannot be assumed in the highly heterogeneous conditions of soil systems. Here, we summarize the key mechanisms underlying bacterial motility and discuss its role within the broader framework of microbial dispersal, highlighting how motility-mediated processes contribute to rhizosphere colonization. We propose that bacterial motility represents a key mechanistic determinant of biofertilizer efficacy. Its role extends beyond the ability of inoculant strains to physically reach the rhizosphere, encompassing competitive colonization on the root surface, long-term persistence, and the ability to respond to dynamic root-derived chemical gradients associated with newly developing root tissues. We argue that inoculant motility should be elevated from a passive descriptive trait to a core design parameter that can be systematically incorporated and regulated during the development and optimization of microbial inoculants. We outline a multi-tiered strategic framework for next-generation biofertilizer engineering that integrates strain selection, community design, motility regulation, and deployment strategies, thereby unlocking the full potential of synthetic microbial consortia for sustainable agriculture, ecosystem restoration, and climate change mitigation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/ismejo\/wrag236","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T11:51:44Z","timestamp":1789041104000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Bacterial motility in rhizosphere colonization: mechanisms, constraints, and implications for microbial inoculants"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Tong","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria 3010 ,","place":["Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Brajesh K","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia , Perth, Western Australia 6009 ,","place":["Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pankaj","family":"Trivedi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST), Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University , Lubbock, TX 79409 ,","place":["United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zahra F","family":"Islam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria 3010 ,","place":["Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ji-Zheng","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria 3010 ,","place":["Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3294-102X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hang-Wei","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria 3010 ,","place":["Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026100408220002900_ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18356\/9789213589526","volume-title":"World Population Prospects 2024: Summary of Results","author":"United 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