Plant sterols and steroid hormones, the brassinosteroids (BRs), are compounds that exert a wide range of biological activities. They are essential for plant growth, reproduction, and responses to various abiotic and biotic stresses. Given the importance of sterols and BRs in these processes, engineering their biosynthetic and signaling pathways offers exciting potentials for enhancing crop yield. In this review, we focus on how alterations in components of sterol and BR metabolism and signaling or application of exogenous steroids and steroid inhibitors affect traits of agronomic importance. We also discuss areas for future research and identify the fine-tuning modulation of endogenous BR content as a promising strategy for crop improvement.

The plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids (BRs), and their precursors, phytosterols, play major roles in plant growth, development, and stress tolerance. Here, we review the impressive progress made during recent years in elucidating the components of the sterol and BR metabolic and signaling pathways, and in understanding their mechanism of action in both model plants and crops, such as Arabidopsis and rice. We also discuss emerging insights into the regulations of these pathways, their interactions with other hormonal pathways and multiple environmental signals, and the putative nature of sterols as signaling molecules.

In plants, the root is a typical sink organ that relies exclusively on the import of sugar from the aerial parts. Sucrose is delivered by the phloem to the most distant root tips and, en route to the tip, is used by the different root tissues for metabolism and storage. Besides, a certain portion of this carbon is exuded in the rhizosphere, supplied to beneficial microorganisms and diverted by parasitic microbes. The transport of sugars toward these numerous sinks either occurs symplastically through cell connections (plasmodesmata) or is apoplastically mediated through membrane transporters (MST, mononsaccharide tranporters, SUT/SUC, H+/sucrose transporters and SWEET, Sugar will eventually be exported transporters) that control monosaccharide and sucrose fluxes. Here, we review recent progresses on carbon partitioning within and outside roots, discussing membrane transporters involved in plant responses to biotic and abiotic factors.