Brassinosteroids

Abstract

The discovery of brassinosteroids can be traced back to 1941 from Mitchell and Whitehead of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA, Beltsville, MD) who reported that pollen extracts often have growth-promoting properties on other plant tissues. In 1970, Mitchell et al. reported that the crude extract of pollen from Brassica napus (rape) contained “brassins” which promoted rapid elongation of internodes in Phaseolus vulgaris. This elongation response was distinct from GA-mediated stem elongation. Subsequently, their work leads to the isolation and identification of brassinolide (BL) as the first steroidal plant growth regulator. Another steroid hormone called castasterone (SC) was isolated from insect galls of chestnut (Castanea sp.). Since then, a number of related steroidal compounds have been isolated which are collectively called as brassinosteroids (BRs). Structurally, BRs are C-27, C-28, and C-29 steroids with different functional groups on A and B rings and on the side chain. BRs occur in algae, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. They have not been detected in microorganisms. Brassinolide is a C-28 brassinosteroid and exhibits highest activity among all BRs so far known.