Diversity-dependent rhizobium recruitment circuits fuel 2-naphthoic acid feedback to strengthen soybean drought recovery (PRJCA039677)

Drought stress increasingly limits crop productivity by disrupting soil plant microbiome interactions. Here, we use ? irradiated soils reconstituted with dilution gradients to demonstrate that high rhizosphere microbial diversity markedly enhances soybean recovery after drought. By integrating sequential physiological measurements with compartment specific multiomics and network analyses, we show that high diversity communities accelerate early rewatering recovery through tightened bacterial fungal functional module coupling and targeted activation of nitrogen pathways. Integrated metabolome microbiome profiling identifies 2-naphthoic acid as a drought-enriched root exudate that recruits and is taken up by beneficial rhizobia via enriched ABC transporters, in turn co-activating denitrificationand nitrogen-fixation gene clusters. Molecular docking and in vitro assays confirm preferential binding to key nitrogen-cycle enzymes, while co-inoculation experiments validate synergistic enhancement of biofilm formation, auxin production, and root colonization, leading to improved nutrient uptake, photosynthetic recovery, and biomass accumulation.