Twenty Years of Brassinosteroids: Steroidal Plant Hormones Warrant Better Crops for the XXI Century

The discovery of brassinosteroids (BS) just over 20 years ago opened a new era in studies of bio-regulation in living organisms. Previously, the only known role of steroids as hormones was in animals and fungi; now a steroidal hormone in plants had been added. Progress in brassinosteroid research has been very rapid. Only 20 years passed between the discovery of brassinolide, the first member of the series, and the application of brassinosteroids in agriculture. Although the other plant hormones have been studied for a much longer period, there has not been similar development. Within the last couple of years two books on brassinosteroids (Khripach VA, Zhabinskii VN, de Groot A. 1999. Brassinosteroids—a new class of plant hormones. San Diego: Academic Press; Sakurai A, Yokota T, Clouse SD, eds. 1999. Brassinosteroids: steroidal plant hormones. Tokyo: Springer Verlag) have been published, but many new data have appeared since that time. Many of the more recent data is devoted to molecular biological aspects of BS and has helped to create a vision of their role in plants and their mechanisms of action. New discoveries of the physiological properties of BS allow us to consider them as highly promising, environmentally-friendly, natural substances suitable for wide application in plant protection and yield promotion in agriculture. This aspect of BS is the main subject of this Botanical Briefing.

[1]  V. Zhabinskii,et al.  Recent Advances in Brassinosteroids Study and Application , 1999 .

[2]  C. Vannini,et al.  The sax1 dwarf mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana shows altered sensitivity of growth responses to abscisic acid, auxin, gibberellins and ethylene and is partially rescued by exogenous brassinosteroid. , 1999, The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology.

[3]  T. Altmann,et al.  Physiology and molecular mode of action of brassinosteroids , 1999 .

[4]  S. Takatsuto,et al.  Brassinosteroid/Sterol synthesis and plant growth as affected by lka and lkb mutations of Pea , 1999, Plant physiology.

[5]  T. Altmann.  Molecular physiology of brassinosteroids revealed by the analysis of mutants , 1999, Planta.

[6]  B. Gregory,et al.  The Arabidopsis dwarf1 mutant is defective in the conversion of 24-methylenecholesterol to campesterol in brassinosteroid biosynthesis. , 1999, Plant physiology.

[7]  Jonathan D. G. Jones,et al.  The tomato DWARF enzyme catalyses C-6 oxidation in brassinosteroid biosynthesis. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[8]  B. Gregory,et al.  The Arabidopsis dwf7/ste1 Mutant Is Defective in the Δ7 Sterol C-5 Desaturation Step Leading to Brassinosteroid Biosynthesis , 1999, Plant Cell.

[9]  T. Altmann.  A tale of dwarfs and drugs: brassinosteroids to the rescue. , 1998, Trends in genetics : TIG.

[10]  V. A. Khripach,et al.  Brassinosteroids: A New Class of Plant Hormones , 1998 .

[11]  Samantha Vernhettes,et al.  A plasma membrane‐bound putative endo‐1,4‐β‐D‐glucanase is required for normal wall assembly and cell elongation in Arabidopsis , 1998, The EMBO journal.

[12]  N. Chua,et al.  The Arabidopsis DIMINUTO/DWARF1 Gene Encodes a Protein Involved in Steroid Synthesis , 1998, Plant Cell.

[13]  R. Bhalerao,et al.  Control of cell elongation and stress responses by steroid hormones and carbon catabolic repression in plants. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[14]  S. Clouse,et al.  Brassinolide affects the rate of cell division in isolated leaf protoplasts of Petunia hybrida , 1998, Plant Cell Reports.

[15]  S. Fujioka,et al.  Brassinosteroids in Arabidopsis thaliana. , 1998, Phytochemistry.

[16]  K. Feldmann,et al.  An Arabidopsis Brassinosteroid-Dependent Mutant Is Blocked in Cell Elongation , 1998, Plant Cell.

[17]  K. Feldmann,et al.  The DWF4 Gene of Arabidopsis Encodes a Cytochrome P450 That Mediates Multiple 22α-Hydroxylation Steps in Brassinosteroid Biosynthesis , 1998, Plant Cell.

[18]  T. Yokota,et al.  Brassinosteroids. Chemistry, bioactivity, and applications. , 1991 .

[19]  G. L. Steffens.  U.S. Department of Agriculture Brassins Project: 1970—1980 , 1991 .

[20]  N. Ikekawa,et al.  Identification of 24-Epibrassinolide in Bee Pollen of the Broad Bean, Vicia faba L. , 1988 .

[21]  T. Yokota,et al.  Castasterone, a new phytosterol with plant-hormone potency, from chestnut insect gall , 1982 .

[22]  T. Maugh.  New chemicals promise larger crops. , 1981, Science.

[23]  J. Flippen-Anderson,et al.  Synthesis of brassino steroids: new plant-growth-promoting steroids , 1979 .

[24]  J. C. Cook,et al.  Brassinolide, a plant growth-promoting steroid isolated from Brassica napus pollen , 1979, Nature.

[25]  S. Clouse,et al.  Brassinosteroids : steroidal plant hormones , 1999 .

[26]  B. Gregory,et al.  The Arabidopsis dwarf 1 Mutant Is Defective in the Conversion of 24-Methylenecholesterol to Campesterol in Brassinosteroid Biosynthesis 1 , 1999 .

[27]  S. Takatsuto,et al.  Identification of Brassinosteroids with Epimerized Substituents and/or the 23-Oxo Group in Pollen and Anthers of Japanese Cedar. , 1998, Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry.

[28]  A. Porzel,et al.  Brassinosteroids and a pregnane glucoside fromDaucus carota , 1998 .

[29]  N. Ikekawa,et al.  Application of 24-epibrassinolide in agriculture , 1991 .

[30]  N. Mandava.  Brassinosteroids: U.S. Department of Agriculture contributions and Environmental Protection Agency registration requirements , 1991 .

[31]  F. Fujita.  Utilization of brassinolide expected to use in the agricultural sciences. , 1985 .