Halopriming mediated salt and iso-osmotic PEG stress tolerance and, gene expression profiling in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.)

Seed priming is a well known pre-germination strategy that improves seed performance. However, biochemical and molecular mechanisms underlying priming mediated stress tolerance are little understood. Here, we report results of the study on growth, physiological characteristics and expression of stress responsive genes in salt primed sugarcane cv. Co 86032 plants in response to salt (NaCl, 150 mM) or iso-osmotic (-0.7 MPa) polyethylene glycol-PEG 8000 (20 % w/v) stress exposure for 15 days. Variable growth, osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant capacity was revealed among the primed and non-primed plants. The primed plants showed better tolerance to the salt or PEG stress, as revealed by better growth and lower membrane damage, through better antioxidant capacity as compared to the respective non-primed controls. Further, steady state transcript expression analysis revealed up regulation of sodium proton antiporter (NHX) while, down regulation of sucrose transporter (SUT1), delta (1) -pyrolline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) and proline dehydrogenase (PDH) in primed plants on exposure to the stress as compared to the non-primed plants. Transcript abundance of catalase (CAT2) decreased by about 25 % in leaves of non-primed stressed plants, however, the expression was maintained in leaves of the stressed primed plants to that of non-stressed controls. Thus, the results indicated priming mediated salt and PEG stress tolerance through altered gene expression leading to improved antioxidant capacity in sugarcane.