Harmony but Not Uniformity: Role of Strigolactone in Plants

Strigolactones (SLs) represent an important new plant hormone class marked by their multifunctional roles in plants and rhizosphere interactions, which stimulate hyphal branching in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and seed germination of root parasitic plants. SLs have been broadly implicated in regulating root growth, shoot architecture, leaf senescence, nodulation, and legume-symbionts interaction, as well as a response to various external stimuli, such as abiotic and biotic stresses. These functional properties of SLs enable the genetic engineering of crop plants to improve crop yield and productivity. In this review, the conservation and divergence of SL pathways and its biological processes in multiple plant species have been extensively discussed with a particular emphasis on its interactions with other different phytohormones. These interactions may shed further light on the regulatory networks underlying plant growth, development, and stress responses, ultimately providing certain strategies for promoting crop yield and productivity with the challenges of global climate and environmental changes.