Letting go is never easy: abscission and receptor-like protein kinases

Abscission is the process by which plants discard organs in response to environmental cues/stressors, or as part of their normal development. Abscission has been studied throughout the history of the plant sciences and in numerous species. Although long studied at the anatomical and physiological levels, abscission has only been elucidated at the molecular and genetic levels within the last two decades, primarily with the use of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This has led to the discovery of numerous genes involved at all steps of abscission, including key pathways involving receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs). This review covers the current knowledge of abscission research, highlighting the role of RLKs. [Figure: see text] John C. Walker (Corresponding author).