Harnessing brassinosteroid signaling in rice: from molecular pathways to environmentally adaptive breeding

TL;DR

This paper reviews how brassinosteroid signaling in rice affects growth, environmental adaptation, and potential crop improvement.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of brassinosteroid signaling in rice, emphasizing its role in environmental adaptation and breeding.

Findings

Brassinosteroid signaling integrates environmental cues like drought and high temperature to regulate rice growth and yield.

The study highlights interactions between brassinosteroid signaling and other plant hormones for dynamic environmental responses.

Recent discoveries offer a framework for using brassinosteroid-related genes in adaptive rice breeding.

Abstract

Brassinosteroids (BRs), a class of steroidal phytohormones, play crucial roles in regulating plant growth, development, and environmental adaptation in rice. With the elucidation of BR signaling pathways in Arabidopsis, the rice BR regulatory network has been progressively uncovered, revealing both conserved and unique features. In this review, we first summarize recent advances in understanding BR signaling mechanisms in rice. We then focus on how BR signaling integrates environmental cues, including nutrient availability, high-temperature stress, drought stress, and pathogen responses, to fine-tune growth and yield. Moreover, we highlight the complex cross-talk between BR signaling and other phytohormones that enables dynamic responses to environmental fluctuations. Finally, we discuss the potential applications of BR-related genes in rice production, together with the challenges of their translation into practical agricultural systems, providing perspectives and opportunities for environmentally adaptive breeding. Taken together, recent discoveries deepen our understanding of BR signaling in rice and provide a conceptual framework for exploring its roles in environmentally adaptive growth regulation and crop improvement.

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