Sugars Play a Critical Role in Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Abiotic stress is one of the major limiting factors of global crop production and food security. To alleviate the effect of abiotic stress, plants produce diverse compounds, among which sugars have emerged as a potential biomolecule. Traditionally, sugars have been known for their carbon storage/translocation and structural roles in plants. During the past decade, sugars gained the attention of plant scientists for their participation in abiotic stress tolerance. Sugars can act as osmo-protectants during cell dehydration caused by abiotic stresses. Sugars either directly scavenge the reactive oxygen species, or induce the activities of other components of a plant's antioxidant system. In recent years, sugars have also been characterized for their signaling pathway, which modulates the expression of important genes providing abiotic stress tolerance to the plant. Therefore, sugars are now being used to enhance plant tolerance to challenging environmental conditions. This chapter introduces sugars that are crucial for abiotic stress tolerance in plants.