Application of brassinosteroid to enhance abiotic stress tolerance in fruit crops: A review

Abstract

Plant growth, development and productivity are significantly impacted by climatic and environmental stresses such as heavy metal, salinity, and drought contamination and temperature extremes. These stresses disrupt essential physiological processes like photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, and hormonal balance, reducing crop yield & quality. Brassinosteroids (BRs), a part of plant steroidal hormones, has resulted to modulate stress response, enhance plant resilience. BRs play a role in mitigating these stresses through antioxidant defense systems, gene expression regulation, and cellular homeostasis maintenance. They are also used in agriculture to improve crop tolerance to these stresses, leading to increased biomass, yield and survival rates. However, challenges remain in understanding the molecular interaction and potential trade-offs associated with BR application under diverse environmental contexts. Future research should focus on optimizing BR-mediated strategies using genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic approaches.