Brassinosteroids: Potential Agrochemicals

Abstract

Plants serve food and economic benefits to people and their endurance and productivity enhancement have been long-established concerns. However, any condition of environmental stress that a plant encounters in its natural environment leads to devastating effects on its overall functioning, thereby affecting productivity and leading to food-deprived conditions and economic loss. Phytohormones have been known to regulate a vast array of physiological functions in plants under normal and unfavorable circumstances. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are the steroidal plant growth regulating hormones that support plants’ overall development along with inculcating stress tolerance against several environmental cues, which help in maintaining their potential and productivity in order to draw maximum economic and nutritional benefits. BRs regulate essential growth and yield attributes like seed germination, cell division, flowering, seed setting, grain parameters, senescence, and post-harvest conditions in crops with high nutritional and market value. They also help in maintaining the nutritional components of several crops, therefore, keeping in view the importance of agricultural and horticultural crops. The role of BRs has been well explored in developing enhanced yield attributes in normal as well as harsh environmental circumstances. Their endogenous levels or exogenous application can enhance plants’ survival by modulating the defense system and stress-responsive transcription factors. The chapter highlights the role of non-toxic and eco-friendly BRs in the augmentation of growth and productivity in a dynamic environment that may be of great interest in future implications.