Osmotic adjustment is a prime drought stress adaptive engine in support of plant production

Osmotic adjustment (OA) and cellular compatible solute accumulation are widely recognized to have a role in plant adaptation to dehydration mainly through turgor maintenance and the protection of specific cellular functions by defined solutes. At the same time, there has been an ongoing trickle of skepticism in the literature about the role of OA in supporting crop yield under drought stress. Contrarian reviews argued that OA did not sustain turgor or that it served mainly for plant survival rather than productivity. This critical review examined 26 published studies where OA was compared with yield under drought stress in variable genotypes of 12 crops, namely, barley, wheat, maize, sorghum, chickpea, pea,…