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Role of nitric oxide in tolerance of plants to abiotic stress

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Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) has now gained significant place in plant science, mainly due to its properties (free radical, small size, no charge, short-lived, and highly diffusible across biological membranes) and multifunctional roles in plant growth, development, and regulation of remarkable spectrum of plant cellular mechanisms. In the last few years, the role of NO in tolerance of plants to abiotic stress has established much consideration. As it is evident from the present review, recent progress on NO potentiality in tolerance of plants to environmental stresses has been impressive. These investigations suggest that NO, itself, possesses antioxidant properties and might act as a signal in activating ROS-scavenging enzyme activities under abiotic stress. NO plays an important role in resistance to salt, drought, temperature (high and low), UV-B, and heavy metal stress. Rapidly increasing evidences indicate that NO is essentially involve in several physiological processes; however, there has been much disagreement regarding the mechanism(s) by which NO reduces abiotic stress.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Firoz Mohammad (Plant Physiology Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh) and anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and critical reading of the manuscript and Professor Adel Salah Abdul-Jabbar (Director of Attracting Outstanding faculty and Researchers Program) for providing the opportunity to work in the Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.

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  1. Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Manzer H. Siddiqui, Mohamed H. Al-Whaibi & Mohammed O. Basalah

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  1. Manzer H. Siddiqui
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Correspondence to Manzer H. Siddiqui.

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Siddiqui, M.H., Al-Whaibi, M.H. & Basalah, M.O. Role of nitric oxide in tolerance of plants to abiotic stress. Protoplasma 248, 447–455 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-010-0206-9

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