Alejandra Londoño1, Jhon H Trujillo-Montenegro1, Eliana Torres-Bedoya1, Héctor F Espitia-Navarro1, José D Cortes1, Jorge Duitama2, Carlos A Viveros1, Jershon López1, Fernando S Aguilar1 and John J Riascos1
1Centro de Investigación de la Caña de Azúcar de Colombia (CENICAÑA), Cali, Colombia; jjriascos@cenicana.org
2Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Drought tolerance is a desirable breeding characteristic for Colombian sugarcane cultivars, supporting the sustainable development goals of the country’s agriculture. We analyzed 42 Illumina paired-end RNA-seq samples (2×100 bp), from leaf and root tissues of three contrasting genotypes for drought tolerance (CC 93-7711, SP 71-694, and MZC 74-275), with the objective of identifying genes and regulatory networks contributing to this trait. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared at the genotype level for each tissue type to identify shared and exclusive genes. We identified 1,650 DEGs in leaves and 11,264 DEGs in roots, from which 927 DEGs were common to both tissues. Additionally, we identified 879 DEGs exclusively expressed in tolerant genotypes in leaves and 2,832 in roots. This bioinformatics analysis led to the selection of five candidate genes, whose full-length cDNAs were isolated and transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana for functional validation. Three genes exhibited superior phenotypes compared to a drought-tolerant A. thaliana line in recovery irrigation experiments. These findings provide valuable insights into alternative strategies for developing sugarcane genotypes with enhanced performance under drought conditions.