Drought Tolerance Mechanisms in Sugarcane Varieties

Drought tolerance in sugarcane arises from an intricate interplay of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular strategies. Morphological adaptations include deeper root systems and modulation of leaf area to optimise water uptake and minimise transpirational loss. Physiological mechanisms involve osmotic adjustment through accumulation of soluble sugars, proline and compatible solutes, together with regulation of stomatal conductance. Biochemically, enhanced activity of antioxidant enzymes mitigates oxidative damage caused by water deficit. At the molecular level, drought triggers hormone-mediated signal transduction—particularly via abscisic acid—and activates networks of transcription factors, aquaporins and stress-responsive genes. Advances in genomics, transcriptomics and phenomics are now guiding marker-assisted breeding and biotechnological interventions to deploy these traits in elite polyploid cultivars, thereby securing yield stability under changing climates.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have applied genome-wide expression profiling to unravel transcriptional responses to graded water-deficit conditions. Experiments with a commercial cultivar under mild, moderate and severe stress identified more than 1 500 differentially expressed genes, of which two-thirds share homology with characterised stress-related proteins. Enrichment analyses revealed shifts in pathways governing secondary metabolite synthesis, carbon allocation and signal transduction. Novel unannotated transcripts induced at higher stress levels represent promising leads for functional validation. Quantitative PCR confirmation of key gene expression patterns underscores the value of high-density microarrays for pinpointing genetic targets to bolster drought resilience in sugarcane.

Drought Tolerance Mechanisms in Sugarcane Varieties publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in drought tolerance mechanisms in sugarcane varieties across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Differentially expressed gene (DEG): A gene exhibiting significant variation in expression levels between experimental conditions.

Osmotic adjustment: Cellular accumulation of solutes to maintain water balance and turgor under drought stress.

Antioxidant enzymes: Proteins that neutralise reactive oxygen species to prevent oxidative damage during water deficit.

Phenotypic plasticity: The capacity of a genotype to modify its morphology or physiology in response to environmental changes.

Transcriptomics: The large-scale study of RNA transcripts to characterise gene expression patterns under specific conditions.

Gene ontology (GO): A structured vocabulary for categorising gene functions and biological processes.

References

1. Sugarcane Water Stress Tolerance Mechanisms and Its Implications on Developing Biotechnology Solutions. Frontiers in Plant Science (2017).
2. Drought and salinity stresses induced physio-biochemical changes in sugarcane: an overview of tolerance mechanism and mitigating approaches. Frontiers in Plant Science (2023).
3. Assessing drought stress in sugarcane with gene expression and phenomic data using CSI-OC. Industrial Crops and Products (2024).
4. Transcriptomic and Proteomic Landscape of Sugarcane Response to Biotic and Abiotic Stressors. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023).
5. Sugarcane Omics: An Update on the Current Status of Research and Crop Improvement. Plants (2019).
6. Signal transduction-related responses to phytohormones and environmental challenges in sugarcane. BMC Genomics (2007).