Soil contamination with heavy metals has become a worldwide problem, leading to the loss in agricultural productivity. Plants have a remarkable ability to take up and accumulate heavy metals from their external environment and it is well known that high levels of heavy metals affect different physiological and metabolic processes. Brassinosteroids are considered as the sixth class of plant hormones and they are essential for plant growth and development. These compounds are able of inducing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. In this paper, information about brassinosteroids and plant responses to heavy metal stress is reviewed.
Soil salinity is one of the abiotic stresses, which reduces plant growth and limits crop productivity. Brassinosteroids are considered as the sixth class of plant hormones and they have pleiotropic effects on plants, among them, they can protect plants under abiotic stresses and especially under salt stress. This paper reviews the information published during the last sixteen years related to the effects of brassinosteroids and their spirostanic analogs in plants submitted to saline stress when they are used by means of seed treatments, through the application of foliar sprays or by rooting media. Brassinosteroids stimulated salt stress tolerance in plants is associated to a decrease of oxidative damage generated by this stress and the interaction between brassinosteroids and other plant hormones, for example: abscisic acid, ethylene and salicylic acid.
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