1: Introduction to vegetable grafting 1.1: Importance and use of vegetable grafting 1.2: The process of vegetable grafting 1.3: Problems associated with vegetable grafting 1.4: Conclusions 2: Genetic resources for rootstock breeding 2.1: Genetic diversity 2.2: Genebank collections 2.3: Current usage of genetic material in rootstocks 2.
4: Germplasm collection of other plant families 2.5: Concluding remarks 3: Rootstock breeding: current practices and future technologies 3.1: Introduction 3.2: Stacking traits: meiosis or grafting or both? 3.3: Developing stable, core collections of germplasm for breeding 3.4: Deploying genetic diversity for rootstocks 3.5: Grafting as a tool for genetic hybridisation and chimera production 3.6: Selection of improved rootstocks 3.
7: Transgenic rootstocks 3.8: Rootstock registration and commercialization 4: Rootstock-scion signalling: key factors mediating scion performance 4.1: Introduction 4.2: Current knowledge of ionic and chemical signalling between rootstock and scion 4.3: Conclusions 5: Physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying graft compatibility 5.1: Introduction 5.2: Anatomical and physiological steps during graft union development 5.3: Role of secondary metabolites at the interface in graft incompatibility 5.
4: Cell-to-cell communication between graft partners 5.5: Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in graft union formation and compatibility. 5.6: Methods for examining graft union development and compatibility 5.7: Conclusions and future perspectives 6: Grafting as agro-technology for reducing disease damage 6.1: Introduction 6.2: The first step: Managing diseases in the nursery 6.3: Disease spread from the nursery to the field, the example of powdery mildew of watermelons 6.
4: Intra- and interspecific grafting and their relations to diseases 6.5: Biotic or abiotic stress? Different responses of grafted plants to environmental conditions, the case of "physiological wilt", and germplasm selection for rational breeding 6.6: Grafted plants' response to nematodes 6.7: Commercial rootstocks and unknown genetics 6.8: Different mechanisms involved in disease resistance induced by grafting 6.9: Conclusions 7: Grafting as a tool to tolerate abiotic stress 7.1: Introduction 7.2: Temperature stress 7.
3: Salinity stress 7.4: Nutrient stress 7.5: Stress induced by heavy metals and metalloids 7.6: Stress by adverse soil pH 7.7: Drought and flood stress 7.8: Conclusions 8: Quality of grafted vegetables 8.1: What is quality? 8.2: Rootstock effects on fruit quality 8.
3: Effects of grafting on ripening and postharvest behaviour 8.4: Bio-physiological processes affecting fruit quality 8.5: Conclusion and perspectives 9: Practical applications and speciality crops 9.1: Establishment of grafted transplant under Mediterranean climate conditions 9.2: Recommendations for the use of grafted plants in greenhouses. The case of the Netherlands 9.3: Role of grafting in speciality crops 9.4: Conclusions and future perspective of vegetable grafting 10: Index.