TRIACONTANOL: A VERSATILE PLANT GROWTH REGULATOR IN OVERCOMING ABIOTIC STRESSES A REVIEW

Abstract

Plants are exposed to wide range of abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, chilling, heavy metals, ultraviolet radiation and water logging and are detrimental to plant growth and development resulting in significant crop output losses around the world. Abiotic stress causes extensive alterations in cellular processes and affect many elements of plant physiology. Because plants are sessile, they have no choice but to respond to these. In this review, we have summarized our current understanding of Triacontanol (TRIA), a key growth-regulating signalling molecule in plants and its response to plants under different abiotic stress condition. The growth promoting role of TRIA in agricultural plants under abiotic stress has been focused on its synergistic interaction with phytohormones and induction of 9-βL(+) adenosine, which has a similar structure to that of cytokinin. The current paper examines the role of exogenously applied TRIA in morpho-physiology and biochemistry of plants in terms of growth, photosynthesis, mineral and nutrient acquisition, yield and quality under stress as well as normal condition. The mode of action and its interaction with other phytohormones in regulating physio-biochemical processes and counteracting stress induced damages are also discussed in this article.