From the stench of death to an antidote for plant aluminium toxicity.

Putrescine is a member of a group of aliphatic compounds, known as polyamines, which are derived from the breakdown of amino acids in living (and dead) cells. Along with the grimly named cadaverine, putrescine was discovered in 1885 by the German physician Ludwig Brieger, who identified these polyamines as the primary constituent of the foul odours we associate with the rot and putrification of flesh. From this morbid origin, it is difficult to believe that putrescine has since been recognised as having numerous beneficial roles for living cells, ranging from increasing the tolerance of plants to biotic and abiotic stresses to possible roles in treating major mood disorders in humans. In this issue of Physiologia Plantarum, Zhu et al. (2019) describes how the addition of putrescine to the roots of rice (Oryza sativa) can alter the building blocks of the cell wall and, in doing so, alleviate aluminium toxicity.