Brassinosteroid Signaling in Crop Development

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a class of steroidal phytohormones that play a central role in regulating plant growth and development. Perceived at the cell surface by receptor kinases, BRs initiate a signal transduction cascade that modulates the activity of transcription factors, ultimately controlling processes such as cell elongation, organ differentiation, and stress responses. Fine-tuning of BR signalling has been shown to influence plant architecture traits including leaf angle, stem height, grain size and root system architecture. In cereals, manipulation of BR pathways has enabled the design of semi-dwarf, lodging-resistant varieties with enhanced yield and improved nitrogen-use efficiency. Cross-talk with other hormone networks, notably gibberellins and auxin, further expands the regulatory reach of BRs and supports adaptive responses to environmental cues. Recent advances reveal how natural variation, structural genomic deletions and regulatory network plasticity can be harnessed to optimise BR perception and downstream output for sustainable crop improvement under diverse agro-ecological settings.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated that targeted attenuation of BR perception can generate high-yield semi-dwarf wheat without reliance on traditional gibberellin-repressor alleles. This approach exploits natural deletion of a genomic haploblock encoding a BR-activating E3 ligase, stabilising a key signalling repressor and conferring enhanced grain filling and lodging resistance with lower fertiliser inputs. In maize, integrative analysis of developmental regulatory networks has uncovered pleiotropic loci at organ-boundary regions that co-ordinate leaf angle and tassel branching. Context-specific transcription factors and cis-regulatory variants within this network enable fine-tuning of canopy architecture, offering precision targets for breeding programmes aiming to balance light interception with reproductive capacity.

Brassinosteroid Signaling in Crop Development publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in brassinosteroid signaling in crop development across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Brassinosteroids: Steroid phytohormones that regulate cell elongation, organ development and stress responses in plants.

BRI1: A leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase located at the plasma membrane that perceives brassinosteroid signals.

Pleiotropy: The phenomenon by which a single gene or locus influences multiple distinct traits.

Lamina joint: The hinge-like region between the leaf blade and sheath that determines leaf angle in grasses.

Transcription factor: A protein that binds DNA to regulate the expression of downstream genes in response to signalling cues.

References

1. Reducing brassinosteroid signalling enhances grain yield in semi-dwarf wheat. Nature (2023).
2. Regulatory variation controlling architectural pleiotropy in maize. Nature Communications (2025).
3. Brassinosteroid Regulates Cell Elongation by Modulating Gibberellin Metabolism in Rice. The Plant Cell (2014).
4. Brassinosteroids Regulate OFP1, a DLT Interacting Protein, to Modulate Plant Architecture and Grain Morphology in Rice. Frontiers in Plant Science (2017).
5. Loose Plant Architecture1 (LPA1) determines lamina joint bending by suppressing auxin signalling that interacts with C-22-hydroxylated and 6-deoxo brassinosteroids in rice. Journal of Experimental Botany (2016).