Modern and historical uses of plant grafting to engineer development, stress tolerance, chimeras, and hybrids

Abstract

For millennia, people have grafted plants to propagate them and to improve their traits. By cutting and joining different species or cultivars together, the best properties of shoot and roots are combined in one plant to increase yields, improve disease resistance, modify plant growth or enhance abiotic stress tolerance. Today, grafting has evolved from what originated as an early form of trait engineering. The fundamental technique remains the same, but new species are being grafted, new techniques have developed and new applications for modifying development and stress tolerance are appearing. In addition, engineering possibilities such as graft chimeras, graft hybrids and the use of mobile RNAs are emerging. Here, we summarize advances in plant grafting with a focus on engineering novel traits. We discuss traditional uses of grafting to engineer traits but also focus on recent developments, challenges and opportunities for plant improvement through grafting.