Brassinosteroids

Abstract

Brassinosteroids are a sixth natural plant hormone that plays an essential regulatory role in plant growth and development. As of the year 2000, over 40 different structures of brassinosteroids had been discovered. Recent advances in research on brassinosteroid‐deficient and ‐insensitive mutants from Arabidopsis, pea, and tomato, and their molecular genetic analysis, are opening new insights into the physiology. The research on biosynthesis and metabolism is also growing rapidly. Brassinosteroids are expected to be used in the future for crop production and plant protection as a new type of plant growth regulator.