Non-genomic effects of steroid hormones: role of ion channels

Abstract

In animals, steroid hormones can act using genomic and non-genomic mechanisms. Plant steroid hormones, brassinosteroids, are capable of inducing the expression of some gene ensembles, however their non-genomic pathways for triggering the physiological effects are still unclear. In this paper, we propose the hypothesis on existence of brassinosteroid non-genomic effects in plant cells. This non-genomic pathway could due to modulation of ion channel activities and modification of membrane receptors.