**3. Conclusions**

The plant associated-microbial communities play important roles in nutrient competition, and in general, in plant health and crop yields. It is therefore important to clearly differentiate between the structure and diversity of bacterial communities found as endophytes vs. on the roots (rhizosphere). Important progress has been achieved in the study of beneficial microbes in maize, but recent studies show that there are unexpected differences between hybrid and native landraces, probably due to opposing farming systems between conventional modern crops and traditional *milpas* system with ancestral practices. It has been hypothesized that *milpa* practices favor the maintenance of specific microorganisms that could have been lost in modern hybrid maize with monocultures, high-tillage, and large agrochemical input techniques. Particularly, endophytic microbes appear to be important communities with unique diversity and functions in native maize. In order to understand *milpa* microbial diversity for developing sustainable solutions, it is first necessary to review our general knowledge on the role of endophytes for the health of plants in general, but specifically for maize. Today, it is increasingly recognized that these endophytic bacterial communities could be significant restore to plant health and they could have offered an opportunity to maximize crop productivity and mitigate the effects of climate change without huge impacts on the ecosystems.
