Sugars are the most important regulators that facilitate many physiological processes,
such as photosynthesis, seed germination, flowering, senescence, and many more under
various abiotic stresses. Exogenous application of sugars in low concentration promote
seed germination, up regulates photosynthesis, promotes flowering, delayed senescence
under various unfavorable environmental conditions. However, high concentration of
sugars reverses all these physiological process in a concentration dependent manner.
Thus, this review focuses the correlation between sugars and their protective functions
in several physiological processes against various abiotic stresses. Keeping in mind
the multifaceted role of sugars, an attempt has been made to cover the role of sugar-regulated
genes associated with photosynthesis, seed germination and senescence. The concentration
of sugars determines the expression of these sugar-regulated genes. This review also
enlightens the interaction of sugars with several phytohormones, such as abscisic
acid, ethylene, cytokinins and gibberellins and its effect on their biosynthesis under
abiotic stress conditions.