Role of Osmotin in Strawberry Improvement

Abstract

In nature, plants are often exposed to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses, severely affecting their growth and development and reducing their productivity. Future predicted adverse climatic changes might threaten the very sustainability of crop production worldwide. Various approaches ought to be explored to deal with the challenges of sustained crop production under such conditions. In this review, we explore the potential of osmotin, a stress-responsive multifunctional pathogenesis-related (PR)-5c protein from tobacco, in improving adaptability of crop plants to climatic changes. As osmotin plays an important role in salt and drought tolerance as well as in cold tolerance and in protecting plants against some fungal pathogens, the relevance of osmotin in improving tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses in strawberry, a salt-sensitive plant that is also susceptible to several fungal pathogens, is presented herein.