Multifunctional Role of Brassinosteroids in Plant Growth, Development, and Defense
摘要
Brassinosteroids (BRs) are growth-promoting steroid hormones in plants, which play a crucial role in regulating several physiological activities. They induce the growth and development of seeds, pollen and stigma, delay senescence, enhance crop yield, regulate male and female fertility, maintain the stem cells and vascular development, and many more. Campesterol is the precursor of BRs biosynthesis and the pathway of BRs biosynthesis includes many enzymatic mechanisms to give rise to Brassinolide (BL), the most active form of BR. According to various reports, BRs have a unique and clarified signal transduction pathway, which begins with the binding of BR to the extracellular domain of BRI1, promoting dimerization with BAK1, another receptor kinase. This activated BRI1-BAK1 dimer receptor complex indirectly controls BIN2 kinase and/or BSU1 phosphatase activities, which in turn directly manipulate the phosphorylation event, and nuclear accumulation of both BZR1 and BES1, two homologous transcription factors. Thereafter, these BZR1 and BES1 bind to the promoter regions of BR-responsive genes to control the gene expression. So, overall, this review discusses the identification and occurrence of BR, their biosynthesis pathway and signal transduction mechanism in plants, and also their variety of contribution in promoting plant growth and development-related functions.