Regulation of Osmolytes Syntheses and Improvement of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Plants being sessile organisms are frequently exposed to different kinds of abiotic stresses, such as salinity, drought, chilling, heat and metal toxicity. These stresses are results of either natural processes or various human activities and present major challenges in attaining sustainable food production. Plants cope with abiotic stresses by employing combinations of stress avoidance and tolerance mechanisms. Several osmolytes accumulate in plants when exposed to abiotic stresses. Abiotic stresses present major challenges to crop production. Development of abiotic stress-tolerant plants can help satisfy the world's growing food demands. Plants are frequently exposed to different kinds of abiotic stresses, and accumulation of osmolytes during various abiotic stresses is a common response in plants. Metabolic profiling, expression profiling and forward and reverse genetics approaches can be employed to understand the roles and regulation of osmolytes in providing tolerance to single stresses and combinations of stresses, which will be helpful in developing crop plants tolerant to multiple abiotic stresses.