diff --git a/src/runtime/slice.go b/src/runtime/slice.go
index 171087d7f6..f457f41429 100644
--- a/src/runtime/slice.go
+++ b/src/runtime/slice.go
@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ func growslice(t *slicetype, old sliceStruct, n int64) sliceStruct {
 
 	et := t.elem
 	if et.size == 0 {
-		return sliceStruct{old.array, old.len, cap}
+		// append should not create a slice with nil pointer but non-zero len.
+		// We assume that append doesn't need to preserve old.array in this case.
+		return sliceStruct{unsafe.Pointer(&zerobase), old.len, cap}
 	}
 
 	newcap := old.cap
diff --git a/test/fixedbugs/issue10135.go b/test/fixedbugs/issue10135.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9985e5a0ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixedbugs/issue10135.go
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+// run
+
+// Copyright 2015 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Issue 10135: append a slice with zero-sized element used
+// to always return a slice with the same data pointer as the
+// old slice, even if it's nil, so this program used to panic
+// with nil pointer dereference because after append, s is a
+// slice with nil data pointer but non-zero len and cap.
+
+package main
+
+type empty struct{}
+
+func main() {
+	var s []empty
+
+	s = append(s, empty{})
+
+	for _, v := range s {
+		_ = v
+	}
+}