Abstract
In the terrestrial ecosystem, higher plants live through specific relationships, i.e., pathogenic, parasitic, or symbiotic interactions with diverse kinds of microorganisms. Among them, root nodule symbiosis in leguminous plants and arbuscular mycorrhization in many plant species have critical importance in agriculture in respect to utilization of atmospheric nitrogen and uptake of phosphate from the soil, respectively. Understanding of these interactions will open the door for sustainable food production with conservation of global environment. We put together the feature story on two representative plant-microbe endosymbioses, root nodule symbiosis with Rhizobial bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis with Glomus fungi. In the following articles in this issue, we summarize recent progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which host plants accommodate their micro-symbiotic partners.
