Designed ABA receptor agonists: A new tool to improve crop quality

Unfriendly environments like drought, cold or any other properties stress lead to a certain reduction of crop yield and quality. Abscisic acid (ABA), as an important plant hormone, plays a very important role in plant growth and resisting plant stress responses. The discovery of ABA receptor crystal structure is a very critical event and provide a very important role for ABA signaling pathways to be exposed to us more clearly. In this process, the screening of ABA receptor agonists played a decisive role in the analysis of ABA crystal structure. Further, various ABA receptor agonists have been screened out, and their functions have also been analyzed. Together, structural studies suggest a detailed mechanism for ABA and receptor binding and regulation of downstream ABA signal pathway, which provide new thoughts for improvement of crop yield and quality through the rational utilize the designed ABA agonists.