Physiological modulation of plants by salicylic acid under drought stress - A review

Abiotic stresses are well known to harm crop performance worldwide. Drought stress is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous stresses, the intensity of which is likely to increase owing to alarming change in the climate. Change in plant water relations, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate, generation of active oxygen species, and imbalance in hormonal concentration are many few of the changes which are inclusively acceptable to be responsible for the reduction in crop performance. To enhance crop productivity under drought conditions several strategies have been proposed and espoused so far, one among them being the priming or spraying with phytohormones. As far as the literature is concerned salicylic acid (SA) seems to be one of the best remedial phytohormones under drought conditions with promising results like up-regulation in the synthesis of osmoprotectants and antioxidants and leading to improvement in the activity/content of most of the physiological, biochemical and molecular aspects. Keeping in view the beneficial role of SA, this review is being outlined to prepare a report which enlightens some of the physiological roles of SA among its diverse activities related to drought tolerance that in turn would be helpful for the researchers to enhance the drought resilience in plants.