From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

The worldwide agriculture industry is facing increasing problems due to rapid population increase and increasingly unfavorable weather patterns. In order to reach the projected food production targets, which are essential for guaranteeing global food security, innovative and sustainable agricultural...

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Main Authors: Dipayan Das, Hamdy Kashtoh, Jibanjyoti Panda, Sarvesh Rustagi, Yugal Kishore Mohanta, Niraj Singh, Kwang-Hyun Baek
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Plants
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/15/2322
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author Dipayan Das
Hamdy Kashtoh
Jibanjyoti Panda
Sarvesh Rustagi
Yugal Kishore Mohanta
Niraj Singh
Kwang-Hyun Baek
author_facet Dipayan Das
Hamdy Kashtoh
Jibanjyoti Panda
Sarvesh Rustagi
Yugal Kishore Mohanta
Niraj Singh
Kwang-Hyun Baek
author_sort Dipayan Das
collection DOAJ
description The worldwide agriculture industry is facing increasing problems due to rapid population increase and increasingly unfavorable weather patterns. In order to reach the projected food production targets, which are essential for guaranteeing global food security, innovative and sustainable agricultural methods must be adopted. Conventional approaches, including traditional breeding procedures, often cannot handle the complex and simultaneous effects of biotic pressures such as pest infestations, disease attacks, and nutritional imbalances, as well as abiotic stresses including heat, salt, drought, and heavy metal toxicity. Applying phytohormonal approaches, particularly those involving hormonal crosstalk, presents a viable way to increase crop resilience in this context. Abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GAs), auxin, cytokinins, salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene, and GA are among the plant hormones that control plant stress responses. In order to precisely respond to a range of environmental stimuli, these hormones allow plants to control gene expression, signal transduction, and physiological adaptation through intricate networks of antagonistic and constructive interactions. This review focuses on how the principal hormonal signaling pathways (in particular, ABA-ET, ABA-JA, JA-SA, and ABA-auxin) intricately interact and how they affect the plant stress response. For example, ABA-driven drought tolerance controls immunological responses and stomatal behavior through antagonistic interactions with ET and SA, while using SnRK2 kinases to activate genes that react to stress. Similarly, the transcription factor MYC2 is an essential node in ABA–JA crosstalk and mediates the integration of defense and drought signals. Plants’ complex hormonal crosstalk networks are an example of a precisely calibrated regulatory system that strikes a balance between growth and abiotic stress adaptation. ABA, JA, SA, ethylene, auxin, cytokinin, GA, and BR are examples of central nodes that interact dynamically and context-specifically to modify signal transduction, rewire gene expression, and change physiological outcomes. To engineer stress-resilient crops in the face of shifting environmental challenges, a systems-level view of these pathways is provided by a combination of enrichment analyses and STRING-based interaction mapping. These hormonal interactions are directly related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action). This review emphasizes the potential of biotechnologies to use hormone signaling to improve agricultural performance and sustainability by uncovering the molecular foundations of hormonal crosstalk. Increasing our understanding of these pathways presents a strategic opportunity to increase crop resilience, reduce environmental degradation, and secure food systems in the face of increasing climate unpredictability.
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spelling doaj-art-9fb2871dcaeb4e8bbea3085f2348c1e52025-08-20T03:02:51ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472025-07-011415232210.3390/plants14152322From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development GoalsDipayan Das0Hamdy Kashtoh1Jibanjyoti Panda2Sarvesh Rustagi3Yugal Kishore Mohanta4Niraj Singh5Kwang-Hyun Baek6Department of Microbiology, The Assam Royal Global University, Guwahati 781035, Assam, IndiaDepartment of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of KoreaBioresource and Traditional Knowledge Laboratory, Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University, Baripada 757003, Odisha, IndiaDepartment of Food Technology, School of Agriculture, Maya Devi University, Dehradun 248011, Uttarakhand, IndiaNano-Biotechnology and Translational Knowledge Laboratory, Department of Applied Biology, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya, Baridua 793101, Meghalaya, IndiaDepartment of Microbiology, The Assam Royal Global University, Guwahati 781035, Assam, IndiaDepartment of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of KoreaThe worldwide agriculture industry is facing increasing problems due to rapid population increase and increasingly unfavorable weather patterns. In order to reach the projected food production targets, which are essential for guaranteeing global food security, innovative and sustainable agricultural methods must be adopted. Conventional approaches, including traditional breeding procedures, often cannot handle the complex and simultaneous effects of biotic pressures such as pest infestations, disease attacks, and nutritional imbalances, as well as abiotic stresses including heat, salt, drought, and heavy metal toxicity. Applying phytohormonal approaches, particularly those involving hormonal crosstalk, presents a viable way to increase crop resilience in this context. Abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GAs), auxin, cytokinins, salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene, and GA are among the plant hormones that control plant stress responses. In order to precisely respond to a range of environmental stimuli, these hormones allow plants to control gene expression, signal transduction, and physiological adaptation through intricate networks of antagonistic and constructive interactions. This review focuses on how the principal hormonal signaling pathways (in particular, ABA-ET, ABA-JA, JA-SA, and ABA-auxin) intricately interact and how they affect the plant stress response. For example, ABA-driven drought tolerance controls immunological responses and stomatal behavior through antagonistic interactions with ET and SA, while using SnRK2 kinases to activate genes that react to stress. Similarly, the transcription factor MYC2 is an essential node in ABA–JA crosstalk and mediates the integration of defense and drought signals. Plants’ complex hormonal crosstalk networks are an example of a precisely calibrated regulatory system that strikes a balance between growth and abiotic stress adaptation. ABA, JA, SA, ethylene, auxin, cytokinin, GA, and BR are examples of central nodes that interact dynamically and context-specifically to modify signal transduction, rewire gene expression, and change physiological outcomes. To engineer stress-resilient crops in the face of shifting environmental challenges, a systems-level view of these pathways is provided by a combination of enrichment analyses and STRING-based interaction mapping. These hormonal interactions are directly related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action). This review emphasizes the potential of biotechnologies to use hormone signaling to improve agricultural performance and sustainability by uncovering the molecular foundations of hormonal crosstalk. Increasing our understanding of these pathways presents a strategic opportunity to increase crop resilience, reduce environmental degradation, and secure food systems in the face of increasing climate unpredictability.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/15/2322phytohormonecrosstalkabiotic responseSDGfood securityclimate change
spellingShingle Dipayan Das
Hamdy Kashtoh
Jibanjyoti Panda
Sarvesh Rustagi
Yugal Kishore Mohanta
Niraj Singh
Kwang-Hyun Baek
From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
Plants
phytohormone
crosstalk
abiotic response
SDG
food security
climate change
title From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
title_full From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
title_fullStr From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
title_full_unstemmed From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
title_short From Hormones to Harvests: A Pathway to Strengthening Plant Resilience for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
title_sort from hormones to harvests a pathway to strengthening plant resilience for achieving sustainable development goals
topic phytohormone
crosstalk
abiotic response
SDG
food security
climate change
url https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/15/2322
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