ABSTRACT
The environment is in a phase of dynamism affecting and imparting stress to all the living organisms in an ecosystem. Stress is defined as any external factor that prevents plants from attaining their full ability to produce yield or genetic potential, thereby affecting their growth and development. Phytohormones play a crucial role in providing defence against environmental stress to plants. Strigolactones (SLs), one of the classes of plant hormones, are recently gaining attention due to their regulatory activities during abiotic stresses by functioning as both endogenous and exogenous signalling molecules. They are also found to be associated with root development, branching of shoots and reproduction. Strigolactones are a non-traditional hormone that is derived from the carotenoid pathway and are involved in growth and development, signalling and delaying senescence in plants. In this chapter, the different roles of strigolactones during abiotic stress in plants have been discussed, along with their applications in agriculture and crop improvement.
