Loading video... VIDEO: A video showing ciliates, a type of protozoan protist, moving around near and interacting with the roots of a switchgrass plant. view more Credit: Javier Ceja Navarro Among the large cast of microbiome players, bacteria have long been hogging the spotlight. But the single-celled organisms known as protists are finally getting the starring role they deserve. A group of scientists who study the interactions between plants and microbes have released a new study detailing the dynamic relationships between soil-dwelling protists and developing plants, demonstrating that soil protists respond to plant signals much like bacteria do. An enormous variety and diversity of microbes live in soil, and studying how these organisms interact with each other and with plant roots is a hot topic in biology, as it has applications for agriculture, land stewardship, and climate change resilience technologies.