Dan Zhao, Feifei Huang, Haimiao Zhang, Yanjie Xie, Guozhi Bi, Wen‐Cheng Liu, Yi Han, Juan Chen, Yuan Zheng, Feihua Wu, Xinhua Ding, Biao Gong
Synthesized the current landscape of Cys-OxiPTMs in plants, detailing their role in hormone signaling and agronomic trait regulation. Evaluated proteomic technologies for identifying redox-sensitive cysteines and explored strategies for manipulating Cys-OxiPTMs. Proposed 'redox breeding' as a strategy for developing climate-resilient, high-yielding crops for sustainable agriculture.
The integration of environmental and developmental cues into coherent physiological responses is fundamental to plant survival. Reactive oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur species (ROS/RNS/RSS) are now recognized as essential signaling molecules, not merely cytotoxic byproducts. Their specificity is largely achieved through reversible, site-specific cysteine oxidative post-translational modifications (Cys-OxiPTMs), which constitute a dynamic and sophisticated "redox code". This review provides a systematic synthesis of the current landscape of Cys-OxiPTMs in plants, bridging chemistry, hormone biology, agronomy, detection, and engineering. The chemical and enzymatic basis of major Cys-OxiPTMs is detailed, along with a discussion of how their spatiotemporal interplay orchestrates signaling specificity. A critical examination is then presented on how these modifications decode and integrate plant hormone signaling networks to regulate key agronomic traits. Cutting-edge proteomic technologies that have revolutionized the identification of redox-sensitive cysteines are also evaluated. Finally, forward-looking strategies to "write" the redox code are explored. By moving the field from descriptive cataloging to predictive "redox breeding," this review establishes a foundational framework for manipulating Cys-OxiPTMs to develop climate-resilient, high-yielding crops for sustainable agriculture.