The plant microbiome, found in the rhizosphere, phyllosphere, and endosphere, is essential for nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and the overall health of plants. This review aims to update our knowledge of and critically discuss the diversity and functional roles of the rice microbiome, as well as microbiome engineering strategies to enhance biofertilization and stress resilience. Rice hosts various microorganisms that affect nutrient cycling, growth promotion, and resistance to stresses. Microorganisms carry out these functions through nitrogen fixation, phytohormone and metabolite production, enhanced nutrient solubilization and uptake, and regulation of host gene expression. Recent research on molecular biology has elucidated the complex interactions within rice microbiomes and the signalling mechanisms that establish beneficial microbial communities, which are crucial for sustainable rice production and environmental health. Crucial factors for the successful commercialization of microbial agents in rice production include soil properties, practical environmental field conditions, and plant genotype. Advances in microbiome engineering, from traditional inoculants to synthetic biology, optimize nutrient availability and enhance resilience to abiotic stresses like drought. Climate change intensifies these challenges, but microbiome innovations and microbiome-shaping genes (M genes) offer promising solutions for crop resilience. This review also discusses the environmental and agronomic implications of microbiome engineering, emphasizing the need for further exploration of M genes for breeding disease resistance traits. Ultimately, we provide an update to the current findings on microbiome engineering in rice, highlighting pathways to enhance crop productivity sustainably while minimizing environmental impacts.

Diversity in the plant gene pool provides breeders with the opportunity to improve targeted traits. Enhancing the genetic background through the introgression of desired gene(s) is an effective strategy to combat stresses like heat. Two field experiments were carried out in 2019–20 and 2020–21 at the research fields of Genetics and Plant Breeding at Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh, to identify heat-tolerant wheat advance lines. In F4 generation, 60 advanced lines were selected from a pool of 160 line and in the F5 generation, 16 lines were selected from the previous selection. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation in both the F4 and F5 generations, with the F5 populations outperforming the check varieties. Grain weight demonstrated the highest heritability and genetic advance, while the plant yield exhibited moderate to high performance. Plant height had the most significant direct effect at the genotypic level, while grain weight had the highest impact at the phenotypic level. A total of 77 alleles were identified with an average of 4.53 alleles per locus. The genetic similarity analysis showed that Shatabdi and BARI Gom 25 had the highest similarity at 94%, followed by P3-18-10 with P3-11-3 at 90%, and P3-24-10 with P3-21-10 at 85%. The PCA, structural, and dendrogram analyses all indicated the same grouping of the selected lines. Therefore, selecting of these lines for the F₆ generation would enhance resilience against heat stress.