International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Brassinosteroids, the Sixth Class of Phytohormones: A Molecular View from the Discovery to Hormonal Interactions in Plant Development and Stress Adaptation Ana Laura G. L. Peres 1, José Sérgio Soares 1 , Rafael G. Tavares 2, Germanna Righetto 1, Marco A. T. Zullo 3, N. Bhushan Mandava 4 and Marcelo Menossi 1,* 1 Functional Genome Laboratory, Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biology, State University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil;
[email protected] (A.L.G.L.P.);
[email protected] (J.S.S.);
[email protected] (G.R.) 2 Center for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 400, Australia;
[email protected] 3 Laboratory of Phytochemistry, Agronomic Institute, Campinas 13020-902, Brazil;
[email protected] 4 Mandava Associates, LLC, 1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +55-19-3521-6236 Received: 28 September 2018; Accepted: 16 November 2018; Published: 15 January 2019 Abstract: Phytohormones are natural chemical messengers that play critical roles in the regulation of plant growth and development as well as responses to biotic and abiotic stress factors, maintaining plant homeostasis, and allowing adaptation to environmental changes. The discovery of a new class of phytohormones, the brassinosteroids (BRs), almost 40 years ago opened a new era for the studies of plant growth and development and introduced new perspectives in the regulation of agronomic traits through their use in agriculture. BRs are a group of hormones with significant growth regulatory activity that act independently and in conjunction with other phytohormones to control different BR-regulated activities.