Abstract: In response to abiotic or biotic stress, plants have evolved a complex signal transduction network to regulate resistance, in which the cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) plays an important role. By way of extracellular domains, plants detect environmental changes and regulate the gene expression, metabolic processes, and physiological and biochemical properties through phosphorylation to combat adversity. This article reviewed the structure, characteristics, functions, and mechanisms of CRKs in plants in response to abiotic and biotic stress with innate immune response, antifungal and autokinase activities, and hormone signaling pathway. Better understanding the functions of the enzymes crucial for plants in dealing with adverse external impositions would lead to advancements in crop cultivation as well as breeding resistant varieties for farming.