India, Oct. 19 -- Scientists from the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) - a biofilm & microbiome research centre - and the National University of Singapore (NUS), have uncovered a surprising strategy plants use to thrive when an essential nutrient - sulphur - is in short supply.

The team discovered that when soil microbes compete with each other in the rhizosphere (the soil surrounding plant roots), they release a well-known compound called glutathione. This compound enhances plant growth under sulphur-deficient conditions. The catch: while plants benefit, some microbes lose out in their own growth.

The researchers call this balancing act a "trans-kingdom fitness trade-off"-where one kingdom of life (...