Animal hormones: potential plant regulators?
Small molecule animal hormone is a kind of regulating substance with high efficiency, which is widely distributed in all parts of body. It plays a critical role in coordinating physiological processes such as metabolism, growth, and development. According to chemical composition, these hormones could be divided into protein hormone containing nitrogen (derived from amino acids, peptides and proteins) and steroid hormone.
As the technology of synthetic animal hormones matures, animal hormones are widely used for medical or agricultural purpose. However, subsequently excreted hormonal waste through defecation and urination could be transferred into environment, which may become a potential threat to plants, especially crops (Ma, & Yates, 2018).
Can animal hormone regulate plant physiology as new plant growth regulators? Several lines of evidence point to an idea that animal hormones are not unique to animals. Neurohormones indoleamines (melatonin and serotonin) and catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) have all been found in plant. They have great potential to regulate multiple features of physiology and resist environmental stress in plants. For the first, we reviewed the effects of existing small-molecules animal hormones on plants to open a broad prospect for the hormonal application in medicine, agriculture and animal.