Plants Steroid Hormones, Brassinosteroids: Current Highlights of Molecular Aspects on their Synthesis/Metabolism, Transport, Perception and Response

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Abstract
Brassinosteroids (BRs) are plant steroids essential for normal growth and development and can be defined as steroids that carry an oxygen moiety at C-3 and additional ones at one or more of the C-2, C-6, C-22 and C-23 carbon atoms. BR biosynthesis and metabolism mutants have been obtained and the corresponding genes cloned. These include genes encoding 5α-reductase and cytochrome P450 enzymes, that are similar to enzymes associated with mammalian steroid synthesis. Perception and/or response mutants have also been identified via screening for altered sensitivity to BRs. Some of these mutants have been found to be defective in a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase and in a component of a vacuolar ATPase. This review highlights the recent advances in unraveling BR synthesis/metabolism, transport, perception and response through the analysis of BR mutants.