Methods and compositions for obtaining useful plant traits

A grafted plant comprising a scion to which a rootstock has been grafted, wherein:

• (i) the rootstock is from a wild-type plant;
• (ii) MSH1 gene expression is suppressed in the scion;
• (iii) the scion confers an improvement in yield or growth rate in progeny obtained from the rootstock portion of the grafted plant, in comparison to a control plant, wherein the control plant comprises either:
• (a) a progeny of a rootstock portion of a grafted plant wherein the rootstock is grafted to a scion that had not been subjected to suppression of MSH1 gene expression;
• (b) a whole plant that lacks any root graft and that had not been subjected to suppression of MSH1 gene expression;
• (c) a wild-type plant or
• (d) a progeny of a plant that is isogenic to the plant source of the rootstock of the grafted plant;
• and,
• (iv) the MSH1 gene expression is suppressed in the scion by a mutation in an endogenous MSH1 gene of the scion or by a small inhibitory RNA (siRNA), a microRNA (miRNA), a co-suppressing sense RNA, and/or an anti-sense RNA having complementarity to the endogenous MSH1 gene promoter, 5′ or 3′ untranslated region, intron, coding region, and/or any combination thereof.