Strigolactone as a potential target for improving abiotic stress tolerance in horticultural crops

Crop yield and quality are affected by abiotic stresses such as drought, low and high temperature, salinity, and heavy metals, which threaten the survival of human beings and the development of industry. As a new plant hormone derived from carotenoid, strigolactone (SL) is produced in the roots of plants. It was first reported that SL can induce seed germination of root-parasitic plants. In recent years, it has been shown that strigolactone plays a regulatory role in plant response to abiotic stresses. By eliminating oxidative stress caused by reactive oxygen species, it can potentially increase photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll content, and thus enhance plant drought resistance. Transcriptome studies have explored signal transduction, antioxidant enzyme activity, transcription factors, and expression of stress-and metabolism-related genes induced by extrinsic strigolactone in plants, the effects of strigolactone on plant growth and development have been preliminarily determined, but the studies on inducing crop tolerance to abiotic stresses are still unknown. In this review, the physiological and molecular aspects of the induction of the response to stress in horticultural crops by strigolactone were reviewed. It is important to improve the tolerance and productivity of horticultural crops under abiotic stress.