: Foliar pathogen infection can induce the enrichment of beneficial microbial consortia in plant rhizosphere, but the mechanism for enhanced plant resistance is unclear. : We investigated the effects of foliar pathogen infection on bacterial communities in maize rhizosphere using high throughput sequencing. : Maize plants grown in non-sterilized soils displayed stronger defense against the foliar pathogen than those in sterilized soils. Foliar pathogen infection further triggered the shift in the structure and composition of rhizosphere bacterial communities. The pathogen-infected plants specially promoted rhizosphere colonization of several bacterial taxa. The genus increased in the rhizosphere after pathogen infection. Other bacterial genera such as and were also greatly enriched in the rhizosphere of pathogen-infected plants. Furthermore, the enriched bacterial species were isolated and were shown to interact synergistically to promote biofilm formation. Although both the and species did not induce plant defense, the species markedly increased the resistance of plants against . Furthermore, the consortium consisting of the , and species (CON ) conferred long-acting disease resistance of maize plants as compared to the individual species. Furthermore, the inoculation with the CON significantly induced a marked increase in the levels of DIMBOA in maize leaves, indicating that the consortium-induced increases of DIMBOA levels partially contributed to enhancing disease resistance of plants. : Foliar infection of maize plants by specifically recruited a group of beneficial rhizosphere bacteria, which conferred enhanced plant defense against pathogen infection. This study provided important evidence that above-ground pathogen infection participated in the mediation of below-ground microbiome for regulating plant defense systems.