The heat shock response of plants: new insights into modes of perception and signaling and how hormones contribute

Abstract Plants have evolved specific temperature preferences, and shifts above this range cause heat stress with detrimental effects such as physiological disruptions, metabolic imbalances, and growth arrest. To reduce damage, plants utilize the heat shock response (HSR), signaling cascades that activate heat shock factors (HSFs), transcription factors that control the heat stress-responsive transcriptome for activation of protective measures. While the core HSR is well studied, we still know relatively little about heat stress perception and signal integration or crosstalk with other pathways. In the last few years, however, significant progress has been made in this area, which is summarized here. It has emerged that the plant hormones brassinosteroids (BRs) and abscisic acid (ABA) contribute to heat stress tolerance by impacting the modes of activity of HSFs. Also, we began to understand that heat stress is sensed in different cellular compartments and that events in the nucleus, such as nuclear condensate formation via liquid–liquid phase separation, play a key role. In the future, it will be important to explore how these multilayered perception and signaling modes are utilized to understand how environmental context and developmental stage determine the outcome of heat stress effects on plant growth and development.