Abstract
Heat stress is the major abiotic stressor in agriculture which reduces crop productivity and yield. Six sugarcane (Sacharum officinarum L.) genotypes were studied to investigate the impact of three temperature levels at four phenological stages on tissue electrolyte production and the feasibility of using the cell thermostability method (CTM) for the identification and selection of heat tolerant sugarcane genotypes. The cell membrane thermostability was quantified by measuring relative cell injury percentage with a modification in the temperature treatment on four phenological stages in a field experiment. Our results suggest that heat tolerance based on cell membrane thermostability can be improved using the existing genetic variability available within the commercial or experimental sugarcane germplasm. We conclude that the cell membrane thermostability test can be a useful screening procedure for selecting sugarcane genotypes that tolerate high temperature stress. The test can be used in conjunction with a temperature trait of 60 °C during the maturity stage. This procedure predicts the ability of sugarcane genotypes to maintain yield and juice quality under stressful field conditions.
Highlights
In recent years, one of the important challenges facing crop physiologists is understanding and overcoming the major abiotic stresses in agriculture (Wahid et al, 2007)
The objective of the study was to investigate three temperature levels for tissue exposure using the thermostability method for six sugarcane cultivars, and determine which of these produced a greater quantity of electrolytes and the establish which is the best phenological stage to identify tolerant genotypes in a selection process
The evaluation of heat tolerance is probably the most relevant approach in a sugarcane breeding program to identify germplasm tolerance. Meeting this goal under field conditions is extremely difficult because specific higher temperatures do not always occur at specific developmental stages or with right intensity or duration. To overcome this inherent difficulty, we evaluated a modificated cell membrane thermostability (CMT) method at four phenological stages in six sugarcane genotypes under rainfed conditions, as a selection criterion in a breeding program
Summary
One of the important challenges facing crop physiologists is understanding and overcoming the major abiotic stresses in agriculture (Wahid et al, 2007). One of these stressors predominant in the world is heat stress (Trivedi, 2015), which decreases plant growth and development and crop productivity and yield (Wahid et al, 2007; Gomathi et al, 2014). Ambient temperatures are rising at a considerable rate as part of the current global climate change; climatological extremes such as heat waves are likely to occur more frequently (IPCC, 2013). On the non-irrigated zones where the rain is the only source of water, sporadic days with heat extremes above 40 °C can occur at any development stage during the growing season (Chen et al, 2010)
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