In this work, the effect of different concentrations of NaCl on calli induced from two sugarcane cultivars NCo310 and CP59-73 was studied. Growth and ion concentrations (Na + , Cl -, K + and Ca 2+ ) of calli were determined after 1, 2 and 3 months of stress with the objective to understand the cellular mechanisms operating in salt stress tolerance and to determine the implication of inorganic fraction in salt tolerance in sugarcane cultivars. A negative effect of the NaCl concentration and the duration of stress exposure on the callus rate growth was observed in both cultivars and with more extent in CP59-73 cv. Results showed an increase in Na + and Cl -and a decrease in K + and Ca 2+ concentrations after 1, 2 and 3 months of salt stress exposure. It also showed that resistant cv. NCo310 stressed calli accumulated less Na + and retained more K + and Ca 2+ than CP59-73 calli. Cl -appeared to be involved in osmotic adjustment since the resistant cv. NCo310 stressed calli accumulated more Cl -than CP59-73 ones. These results suggested that the resistance to salinity in sugarcane is associated with a high K + , Ca 2+ and Cl -concentrations and a low Na + concentration within cells.Key words: sugarcane (Saccharum sp.), salt stress, ion uptake, callus growth, long-term stress exposure.
INTRODUCTIONSalinity is a significant factor that affects crop production and agricultural sustainability worldwide, since about 10% of the land surface and 50% of all irrigated land in the world are prone to salinity (Flowers et al., 2010). Salt stress affects several aspects of plant physiology by its osmotic and ionic components (Munns and Tester, 2008 However, the operating mechanisms remains till now poorly understood and it not easy to differentiate between the effects due to the osmotic component and those due to the ionic one (Gandonou et al., 2011). Adaptation to salt stress involves several mechanisms that help plants to adjust osmotically, to maintain a low cytoplasmic concentration of toxic ions and a high concentration of essential minerals (Munns, 2005). It is well known that cell culture techniques, including callus culture constitutes an important tool to investigate the response to salts, such as NaCl, of several plants at cellular level (Perez-Alfocea et al., 1994;Lutts et al., 1996;Ehsanpour and Fatahian, 2003;Gandonou et al., 2011) and therefore, to understand the cellular mechanisms involved in the salt tolerance and/or sensitivity (Tal, 1983;Gandonou et al., 2011). As for sugarcane, there were a few studies on the implication of inorganic solutes to osmotic adjustment and salt tolerance at the cell level. In a previous study, it was shown that ions toxicity was implied in salt effect at cellular level and that K + ion plays a crucial role in sugarcane salt-tolerance (Gandonou et al., 2005a). In the present investigation, the effects of different NaCl concentrations (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM) and the duration of stress exposure on callus growth and ion concentration in two sugarcane genotypes, CP59-73 and NCo310, at t...