Steroid hormones are key regulators of growth and physiology in both plants and animals. The plant steroid hormones known as brassinosteroids (BRs) are essential for a wide range of developmental processes throughout the life cycle. In contrast with animal steroid hormones, which act mostly through nuclear receptors, BRs act through a cell-surface receptor kinase. The BR signal transduction pathway from the cell-surface receptor to nuclear gene expression has been elucidated in great molecular detail, and thus serves as a paradigm for receptor kinase signalling in plants. Furthermore, several mechanisms of signal integration have been identified that explain how BRs and other hormonal and environmental signals co-regulate specific developmental outputs in a synergistic or antagonistic manner.
Keywords: auxin; brassinosteroids; cross-talk; gibberelic acid; phytochrome; phytohormones; signal integration; signal transduction.
© 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited.