Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00092-5Promoting mutually beneficial relationships between plants and soil microbes that enhance nutrient acquisition by plants could improve crop production without increasing inorganic-fertilizer use. A mutation that causes an amino-acid substitution in a channel called CNGC15 in the plant cells nucleus boosts the formation of such endosymbiotic relationships.