Brassinosteroids: A Class of Plant Hormone

483 Pages·2011·6.29 MB·English

by  Andrzej Bajguz (auth.)

Brassinosteroids: A Class of Plant Hormone

Shamsul Hayat • Aqil Ahmad
Editors
Brassinosteroids: A Class
of Plant Hormone
Editors
Shamsul Hayat Aqil Ahmad
Associate Professor Professor
Department of Botany Department of Botany
Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University
ALIGARH 202 002 ALIGARH 202 002
India India
[email protected] [email protected]
ISBN 978-94-007-0188-5 e-ISBN 978-94 -007-0189-2
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0189-2
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
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Dedicated To The
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh

Contents
Foreword ix

Preface xi

Contributors xiii

About the Editors xix

1. Brassinosteroids – occurrence and chemical structures
in plants
Andrzej Bajguz 1

2. Regulatory mechanisms of brassinosteroid signaling
in plants
M.-C. Codreanu and E. Russinova 29

3. Regulation of brassinosteroid metabolism
L. Hategan, B. Godza and M. Szekeres 57

4. Brassinosteroid signaling in rice
H. Nakagawa, A. Tanaka and M. Mori 83

5. Brassinosteroids and light – regulatory factors of growth
and development of plants
I.F. Golovatskaya 119

6. Brassinosteroids and photosynthesis
D. Holá 143

7. Physiological effects related to brassinosteroid application
in plants
M.M.A. Gomes 193

8. Genomic and non-genomic events involved in the
brassinosteroid-promoted plant cell growth
A.B. Pereira-Netto 243

vii
viii Contents

9. Role of brassinosteroids on horticultural crops
Y.Y. Kang and S.R. Guo 269

10. Brassinosteroid action and its relation with heat stress
mechanisms in plants
L.M. Mazorra 289

11. Protective effects of brassinosteroids against herbicides
R. Piñol and E. Simón 309

12. Brassinosteroids: under biotic stress
Shamsul Hayat, Mohammad Irfan and Aqil Ahmad 345

13. The significance of ethanol as a hormone solvent
in experiments on the physiological activity
of brassinosteroids
Anna Janeczko 361

14. Immunoassays of brassinosteroids
V.A. Khripach, V.N. Zhabinskii and R.P. Litvinovskaya 375

15. Transcriptomics and proteomics study in regulation
of brassinosteroids
H.F. Juan 393

16. Brassinosteroids for phytoremediation application
M. Barbafieri and E. Tassi 403

17. Prospects of brassinosteroids in medicinal applications
R. Bhardwaj, N. Arora, P. Uppal, I. Sharma
and M.K. Kanwar 439

Index 459
Foreword
Brassinosteroids (BRs) are endogenous plant growth-promoting hormones
found throughout the plant kingdom that influence cellular expansion and
proliferation and the phenotype of mutants affected in BR biosynthesis or
signaling clearly show that these plant steroids are essential regulators of a
variety of physiological processes including organ elongation, vascular
differentiation, male fertility, timing of senescence, and leaf development. BRs
are structurally similar to animal steroid hormones, and like their animal
counterparts, BRs regulate the expression of hundreds of genes, impact the
activity of numerous metabolic pathways, and help control overall develop-
mental programs leading to morphogenesis. Several books covering various
aspects of BR biology and chemistry appeared in 1991, 1999 and 2003.
However, in the past seven years a great deal of progress has been made in
understanding specific components of BR signal transduction and in clarifying
mechanisms by which BR perception ultimately results in changes in the
expression of specific genes associated with different developmental programs.
The number of physiological processes known to involve BR action has also
expanded and significant experiments quantifying the utility of BR application
in practical agricultural have been documented. Therefore, it is very timely
that the editors of the current volume have collected and integrated a series
of informative chapters on BR molecular biology, physiology, metabolism
and practical applications.
BR signaling has been intensively studied over the past ten years, becoming
one of the best-characterized plant hormone pathways. The role of membrane-
bound receptor kinases and their cytoplasmic targets in perceiving and
propagating the BR signal have been elucidated and novel BR-dependent
transcription factors that regulate hundreds of different genes have been
characterized. Two chapters in the current volume expound on these advances
in BR signaling and a third chapter is devoted to the use of global proteomic
and genomic technologies that have further advanced our understanding of
BR mechanisms. Besides signal transduction, regulation of endogenous BR
levels in the plant is critical to BR function and two chapters in the current
edition thoroughly address these issues. The known and proposed physiological
processes involving BR action are then documented in detail in a total of six
chapters, covering general physiology, interactions with light and the role of
BRs in abiotic and biotic stress responses. In view of the multitude of

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