Connecting the plant vasculature to friend or foe

Contents 1611 I. 1611 II. 1612 III. 1612 IV. 1614 V. 1614 VI. 1614 VII. 1615 VIII. 1616 1616 References 1616 SUMMARY: The plant vasculature transports water, sugars, hormones, RNAs and proteins. Such critical functions need to be protected from attack by pests and pathogens or from damage by wounding. Plants have developed mechanisms to repair vasculature when such protections fail and to even initiate new vascular connections to tissues supporting symbionts. The developmental phenomena underlying vascular repair and rewiring are therefore critical for horticultural grafting, for plant infection and for mutualist associations with rhizosphere microbes. Despite the biological and economic interest, we are only beginning to understand how plants connect and reconnect their vasculature to a wide variety of organisms. Here, I discuss recent work and future prospects for this emerging field.