The Response of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Cultured Cells to Anoxia and the Selection of a Tolerant Cell Line

The effect of anoxia on the sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) cultured cells was studied in order to elaborate a technique for in vitro selection of cell lines, which would be tolerant to anaerobic stress. Inhibitory and lethal doses of anaerobic incubation were established from the state of the mitochondrial ultrastructure during the anaerobic incubation of cells either with or without exogenous glucose, as well as from the pattern of the post-anaerobic callus growth. An intact state of the mitochondrial ultrastructure and the viability of some cells in the presence of 3% glucose were shown to be maintained for at least 14 days of anaerobic incubation, while the index of post-anaerobic growth decreased by almost 50% even after 72-hour-long anaerobiosis. In the absence of exogenous glucose, a marked destruction of mitochondria and a twofold decrease in the callus growth index were observed as early as after six-hour-long anaerobic stress. A 48-hour-long incubation under these conditions resulted in the maintenance of the intact ultrastructure only in 7–10% of cells, while a 96-hour-long anaerobiosis brought about the complete degradation of the subcellular structure and cell death. A 48-hour-long anaerobiosis without exogenous glucose was chosen for selecting the anoxia-tolerant cell lines. After three cycles of selection, the anoxia tolerance of the selected cell line exceeded the respective index of the initial callus several-fold. In selected line, about 50% of cells retained viability and could resume growth even after 96-hour-long anaerobic incubation. The experimental results obtained were used to determine the possible causes of the heterogeneity of callus cells as regards their anoxia resistance.