2020/12/06 by Münir Öztürk, Munir Ozturk, Bengu Turkyilmaz Unal +5 · 5 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance #Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism #Plant responses to water stress
paper · doi:10.1111/ppl.13297
openalex publication_date 2020/12/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Drought stress, which causes a decline in quality and quantity of crop yields, has become more accentuated these days due to climatic change. Serious measures need to be taken to increase the tolerance of crop plants to acute drought conditions likely to occur due to global warming. Drought stress causes many physiological and biochemical changes in plants, rendering the maintenance of osmotic adjustment highly crucial. The degree of plant resistance to drought varies with plant species and cultivars, phenological stages of the plant, and the duration of plant exposure to the stress. Osmoregulation in plants under low water potential relies on synthesis and accumulation of osmoprotectants or osmolytes such as soluble proteins, sugars, and sugar alcohols, quaternary ammonium compounds, and amino acids, like proline. This review highlights the role of osmolytes in water-stressed plants and of enzymes entailed in their metabolism. It will be useful, especially for researchers working on the development of drought-resistant crops by using the metabolic-engineering techniques.