US EPA

3066938 

Journal Article 

Roles of osmoprotectants in improving salinity and drought tolerance in plants: a review 

Singh, M; Kumar, J; Singh, S; Singh, VP; Prasad, SM 

2015 

1 

Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology
ISSN: 1569-1705
EISSN: 1572-9826 

14 

3 

407-426 

10.1007/s11157-015-9372-8 

WOS:000359367300005 

Abiotic stresses collectively are responsible for crop losses worldwide. Among various abiotic stresses, drought and salinity are the most destructive. Different strategies have been adopted for the management of these stresses. Being complex traits, conventional breeding approaches have shown less success in improving salinity and drought stress tolerance. Roles of compatible solutes in salinity and drought stress tolerance have been studied extensively. At physiological level, osmotic adjustment is an adaptive mechanism involved in drought and/or salinity tolerance and permits the maintenance of turgor pressure under stress conditions. Increasing evidences from series of in vivo and in vitro studies involving physiological, biochemical, genetic, and molecular approaches strongly suggest that osmolytes such as ammonium compounds (polyamines, glycinebetaine, b-alanine betaine, dimethyl-sulfonio propionate and choline-O-sulfate), sugars and sugar alcohols (fructan, trehalose, mannitol, d-ononitol and sorbitol) and amino acids (proline and ectoine) perform important function in adjustment of plants against salinity and drought stresses. Thus, aim of this review is to expose how to osmoprotectants detoxify adverse effect of reactive oxygen species and alleviate drought and salinity stresses. An understanding of the relationship between these two sets of parameters is needed to develop measures for mitigating the damaging impacts of salinity and drought stresses. 

Antioxidants; Drought stress; Osmoprotectants; Reactive oxygen species; Salt stress