Abscission is a plant specific activity to detach senescent, damaged or matured organs. This activity occurs at abscission zones (AZs), which develop at the junction between organs and the main plant body. Development of pedicel AZs is observed in diverse plant species, but it is not known how conserved the developmental program is between different plant systems. Nakano et al (on pp. 1097–1106) demonstrated that the jointless (j) mutation in tomato, which blocks development of pedicel AZs, is complemented by ectopic expression of an apple gene, MdJb, and that AZ development is restored in j mutants with the apple gene. These results suggest that control of pedicel AZ development in tomato is conserved in apple and most likely in other plant species.