Cell-cell adhesion in plant grafting is facilitated by β-1,4-glucanases

Grafting success by cell wall remodeling Plants that produce great fruit may not always have great roots. Grafting of a productive scion onto a resilient rootstock has provided agriculturalists with solutions to this and other challenges. Notaguchi et al. have now studied why some plant grafts work better than others (see the Perspective by McCann). The tobacco relative Nicotiana benthamiana ( Nb ) turns out to be the superhero of grafting, able to form grafts with plants from a wide range of evolutionary families. A bit of Nb , set as a middleman between a tomato scion and an Arabidopsis rootstock, negotiated a successful junction between these two otherwise nonconversant plant species. The expression of β-1,4-glucanases secreted into the extracellular region turns out to be key in facilitating cell wall reconstruction. Science , this issue p. 698 ; see also p. 618