Practical aspects of brassinosteroids in drought stress protection and its usage in agriculture

Abstract

Brassinosteroids (BRs) represents a new group of phytohormones. They contribute to regulation of plants growth and development, act as regulators of plant processes as seed germination, elongation growth, photomorphogenesis and photosynthesis. They are critical in response to environmental and biotic stresses like: heat, salinity, heavy metal pollution or pathogenic microorganisms. Drought stress occurs during deficiency of water in the plant environment. Lack of water in plant medium highly affects the plant development. It comes to plant processes disorders and abnormal development of plants. Long-term drought stress may cause the death of plant. Drought stress occurs in agriculture. Hence, there is a need to protect plants against its effect. Numerous reports indicate that BRs are beneficial to plants during stress, including drought. In the following research, the role of BRs in plants and usefulness of these growth regulators during stresses, especially drought, was explained. Additionally, the previous use in agriculture was described.