Brassinosteroids, gibberellins and light-mediated signalling are the three-way controls of plant sprouting

Abstract

The steroid hormones found in plants, the brassinosteroids, were originally genetically identified about 15 years ago as critical regulators of seedling photomorphogenesis. Two studies now shed light on the molecular mechanisms behind this observation. Brassinosteroids control seedling morphogenesis through direct interaction with master transcriptional regulators downstream of growth-promoting hormones and light signalling. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.