Molecular and metabolic perspectives of sugarcane under salinity stress pressure

Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses which affect nearly all aspects of plant growth. It is a permanent constraint to sugarcane production in many countries. The best option for crop production, yield improvement and yield stability under salinity stress conditions is to develop salinity tolerant crop varieties. One of the main goals in breeding programme is selection of the best genotype under salt stress conditions. However, low heritability of salinity tolerance and lack of effective selection approaches limit development of tolerant sugarcane cultivars for salt stress. Sugarcane crop have wide genetic variability in form of its morphological, physiological and biochemical characters. Many morphological traits of sugarcane provide it tolerance to many biotic and abiotic stresses. Since a long time, efforts are being made to identify these traits so as to utilize them in breeding programs for salinity tolerance. This paper summarizes the role of the different morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters of sugarcane in providing salinity tolerance and their usability in screening salinity tolerant cultivars. Therefore understanding of the molecular basis identification of salt stress related genes and tolerance mechanisms are essential for breeding and genetic engineering of salt tolerance in crop plants.