"Bite into an apple, and you’re tasting the fruit of scientific progress with deep roots. Apple-growing operations over the past half-century have undergone a stark transformation. Large, stately trees have given way to diminutive ones spread across wires like grapevines. But the story of the modern apple orchard begins in many ways below ground. Almost all commercial growers now graft branches of a preferred apple variety—say Gala or SnapDragon or any one of the thousands of other options—onto chosen rootstocks. These rootstocks provide optimal attributes below ground while allowing growth of any fruit variety above. Rootstock breeding has made a dramatic shift in orchards around the world, influencing attributes such as the size and shape of the trees and their resiliency in withstanding disease."