The present invention relates to methods for generating plants having modified phenotypes, and to plants so generated and parts of these plants. In particular, the present invention relates to novel methods for producing non-transgenic plants with a desired phenotype via transmission of the RNA-mediated transcriptional gene regulation signal from the rootstock to the scion. The invention also relates to methods of inhibiting or activating expression of target genes in an engrafted plant via RNA-mediated transcriptional gene regulation in a non coding region of a target gene. The invention also relates to rootstocks altered via RNA-mediated transcriptional regulation, and to a use of the altered rootstocks for inducing the gene silencing or gene up-regulation in scions and for modifying the phenotype of engrafted plants.
