Strigolactones can be a potential tool to fight environmental stresses in arid lands

Background: environmental stresses pose a significant threat to plant growth and ecosystem productivity, particularly in arid lands that are more susceptible to climate change. Strigolactones (SLs), carotenoid-derived plant hormones, have emerged as a potential tool for mitigating environmental stre...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Tariq, Akash|||0000-0002-5382-9336; Ullah, Ihteram|||0000-0002-7357-369X; Sardans i Galobart, Jordi|||0000-0003-2478-0219; Graciano, Corina; Mussarat, Sakina; Ullah, Abd|||0000-0003-1570-0176; Zeng, Fanjiang|||0000-0003-4209-6971; Wang, Weiqi; Al-Bakre, Dhafer A.|||0000-0003-3564-0721; Ahmed, Zeeshan F.|||0000-0002-7529-3341; Ali, Sikandar|||0000-0001-9018-2837; Zhang, Zhihao|||0000-0002-3260-7195; Yaseen, Aftab; Peñuelas, Josep|||0000-0002-7215-0150
Format: Article
Publication date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:287463
Online Access:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/287463
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.115966
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Plant hormones
Strigolactones
Abiotic stresses
Plant responses
Arid lands
Description
Summary:Background: environmental stresses pose a significant threat to plant growth and ecosystem productivity, particularly in arid lands that are more susceptible to climate change. Strigolactones (SLs), carotenoid-derived plant hormones, have emerged as a potential tool for mitigating environmental stresses. - Methods: this review aimed to gather information on SLs' role in enhancing plant tolerance to ecological stresses and their possible use in improving the resistance mechanisms of arid land plant species to intense aridity in the face of climate change. - Results: roots exude SLs under different environmental stresses, including macronutrient deficiency, especially phosphorus (P), which facilitates a symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF). SLs, in association with AMF, improve root system architecture, nutrient acquisition, water uptake, stomatal conductance, antioxidant mechanisms, morphological traits, and overall stress tolerance in plants. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that SL-mediated acclimatization to abiotic stresses involves multiple hormonal pathways, including abscisic acid (ABA), cytokinins (CK), gibberellic acid (GA), and auxin. However, most of the experiments have been conducted on crops, and little attention has been paid to the dominant vegetation in arid lands that plays a crucial role in reducing soil erosion, desertification, and land degradation. All the environmental gradients (nutrient starvation, drought, salinity, and temperature) that trigger SL biosynthesis/exudation prevail in arid regions. The above-mentioned functions of SLs can potentially be used to improve vegetation restoration and sustainable agriculture. - Conclusions: resent review concluded that knowledge on SL-mediated tolerance in plants is developed, but still in-depth research is needed on downstream signaling components in plants, SL molecular mechanisms and physiological interactions, efficient methods of synthetic SLs production, and their effective application in field conditions. This review also invites researchers to explore the possible application of SLs in improving the survival rate of indigenous vegetation in arid lands, which can potentially help combat land degradation problems.