Open Access

REVIEW

Flirting with Fertility: Cytokinin’s Expanding Role in Plant Reproduction

Paige M. Henning^*

Center for Genomic Science Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA

* Corresponding Author: Paige M. Henning. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Utilization of Biostimulants in Plant Growth and Health)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2025, 94(10), 2957-2983. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2025.068899

Received 10 June 2025; Accepted 18 September 2025; Issue published 29 October 2025

Abstract

Cytokinins are ancient hormones present across all kingdoms of life except archaea, although functional biosynthesis pathways have yet to be identified in animalia. Known for their roles in cell division and proliferation, cytokinins are critical to plant life, as they regulate various aspects of vegetative growth, stress response, and reproduction. In this review, we summarize literature from 2020 to 2025 pertaining to the cytokinin functions in plant reproduction. While general aspects of cytokinin’s role in plant reproduction have been addressed, we particularly focus on the role of cytokinin in reproductive systems due to recent work identifying their role as sex-determining factors in dioecious species in Salicaceae and other families, their role in determining flower sex in monoecious species, and their involvement in self-incompatibility response and asexual reproduction.

---

Keywords

---