Osmotic Stress
Omid Askari‐Khorasgani, Muhammad Ishaq Asif Rehmani, Shabir Hussain Wani, Anuj Kumar
Abstract
Drought is one of the most widespread global issues, undermining crop yield and quality and may lead to complete plant death under severe stress conditions. Osmotic adjustment allows plants to adapt and survive under osmotic stress conditions caused by drought or salinity. Accumulation of osmoregulators helps plants to continue normal biological activities by maintaining cellular water status, structure, function, and thus metabolism where environmental oscillations could halt their natural processes. Drought-tolerant species have evolved more effective strategies to survive under stress conditions. Elucidation of their gene expression, signaling pathways, osmotic adjustment, and metabolism-related phytochemicals have provided numerous opportunities to develop tolerant cultivars; however, many of these aspects are still to be unraveled. Hence, this review presents the latest findings of plants osmoregulatory adaption mechanisms to provide deep insights into breeding techniques for developing drought tolerant species.