Role of brassinosteroids in horticultural crops (Reviews)

With the progress of chemical synthesis technology, structurally modified brassinosteroids (BRs) with greater stability, under field conditions have been synthesized on a commercial scale and registered as plant growth regulators for specific horticultural crops. In both fundamental and application-oriented research, BRs and their analogues play prominent roles in various physiological processes including, seed development and germination, flower sex expression, fruit development, improvement of quantity and quality of crops, and resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. It is worthy to note here that the involvement of BRs in plant protection from adverse environmental stress and pesticides seems to have good prospects, since BRs appear nontoxic and environmentally friendly. It is well known that horticultural crops have a great variety of produce organs as well as high yield and output values. Moreover, their production is susceptible to sub-optimum environmental conditions, especially in facilities cultivation. Thus, practical application of BRs to horticultural crops for enhancing crops production and protection may have a promising prospect in the near future.