Modifications of morphological and anatomical characteristics of plants by application of brassinosteroids under various abiotic stress conditions - A review

Abstract Brassinosteroids (BRs) are considered as the 6th group of plant growth regulators with significant growth promoting activity. BRs were initially extensively studied for their profound growth promoting physiological responses viz., growth, yield, seed germination, photosynthesis, senescence, photomorphogenesis, flowering etc. BRs have been further explored for stress-protective properties in plants against a number of abiotic stresses like heat, chilling, freezing, drought, flooding, oxidative, salt, allelochemicals, radiation, light, wind, heavy metals stresses etc. It can be aptly stated that BRs induce plant tolerance to a wide spectrum of stresses. The ever-changing environmental conditions are causing serious damages to the plants as the present stressful environmental conditions are posing unrepairable morphological and anatomical changes wherein the growth and yield of plants is being greatly hampered. The present review is a study on the role of BRs in the improvement of morphological and anatomical changes plants grown under various abiotic stress conditions.