Advances in research on tortuous traits of plants

Tortuous-stem plants have extremely high ornamental value due to the zigzag shape or natural twisting of the branches. At present, the research about tortuous-stem plants focuses mainly on the morphological characteristics, anatomic structure and genetic characteristics, but few studies have been conducted on the genetic mechanism of tortuous stem traits. In recent years, numerous tortuous-stem mutants have been screened from Arabidopsis thaliana, Zea mays, Glycine max, Lycopersicon esculentum, Prunus and Populus indicating that tortuous traits may be closely related to the abnormal geotropic growth, uneven distribution of hormones and asymmetric development of vascular bundles. In this paper, advances in morphological characteristics, environmental regulation, genetic patterns, molecular mechanism and application prospects of tortuous-stem plants were summarized, aiming at providing the basis for revealing the molecular mechanism of tortuous stem traits.