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. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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植物干旱胁迫下的渗透调节及其作用

由于气候变化，导致作物产量质量和数量下降的干旱压力如今变得更加突出。需要采取严肃的措施来提高作物对可能因全球变暖而发生的严重干旱条件的耐受性。干旱胁迫会引起植物的许多生理和生化变化，因此维持渗透调节非常重要。植物对干旱的抗性程度因植物种类和栽培品种、植物物候阶段以及植物暴露于胁迫的持续时间而异。低水势下植物的渗透调节依赖于渗透保护剂或渗透剂的合成和积累，如可溶性蛋白质、糖和糖醇、季铵化合物和氨基酸，如脯氨酸。这篇综述强调了渗透物在水分胁迫的植物中的作用以及它们代谢中所需要的酶的作用。这将是有用的，特别是对于使用代谢工程技术开发抗旱作物的研究人员而言。本文受版权保护。版权所有。