Plants respond to a wide range of intrinsic signals that regulate their growth and development. These include sugars, RNAs, polypeptides, phytohormones and peptide hormones, which are thought to act as long-range mobile signals that travel via either the phloem or xylem to help co-ordinate whole-plant responses. This month’s Spotlight Issue, organised by Hitoshi Sakakibara and Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi, which includes a meeting report and a selection of review papers from contributors of the recent Integrative Graduate Education and Research Program in Green Natural Sciences (IGER) International Symposium on Long-Distance Signaling in Plants (see Kiba, on pp. 1697–1699), presents an overview of current research in this field.