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Botanical Sciences
On-line version ISSN 2007-4476Print version ISSN 2007-4298
Abstract
MORADI, Parviz. Key plant products and common mechanisms utilized by plants in water deficit stress responses. Bot. sci [online]. 2016, vol.94, n.4, pp.657-671. ISSN 2007-4476. https://doi.org/10.17129/botsci.709.
Plants are always exposed to fluctuation of environmental factors. Water stress is one of the main abiotic factors limiting plant growth and development on most areas of the world. Declining available water triggers various adaptive processes to cope with water deficit stress. These mechanisms can be categorized into escape, avoidance and tolerance strategies. Avoidance mechanisms are employed to maintain the balance between water uptake and water loss, while tolerance mechanisms are trying to keep the plant functions the same level as unstressed level. Major molecular mechanisms attributed as tolerance strategies include osmotic adjustment, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) scavenging, cellular components protection membrane lipid changes and hormone inductions. Huge number of metabolites contributes to these diverse mechanisms, but broadly can be classified into amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and secondary metabolites. In this review, the role of these compounds is discussed in the contributed mechanisms against water deficit stress. Identification of these substances (key plant products) and related biochemical processes of drought tolerance might help plant breeders and researchers in different ways such as shortening and facilitating selection procedures in plant breeding programs, improving drought tolerance of sensitive varieties either by transferring related genes or simply exogenous application.
Keywords : Drought; Compounds; Tolerance; Metabolite; Biochemical; Osmotic.