Sugarcane's drought memory legacy: how past stress shapes future resilience

Plants frequently experience recurrent drought events separated by periods of rehydration. Although drought imposes strong constraints on plant physiology, prior exposure may alter subsequent stress responsiveness through memory-based mechanisms. Here, we investigated whether recurrent drought at distinct developmental stages establishes stress memory in sugarcane and whether this response persists across vegetative propagation. Two genotypes contrasting in drought tolerance and productivity (IACCTC07-8008 and IACSP95-5000, respectively) were grown under greenhouse conditions and subjected to three drought cycles imposed either at tillering or maturation stage. Gas exchange, photochemical performance, leaf water status, primary metabolite profile, and growth traits were assessed across cycles, and vegetative propagules were subsequently evaluated under renewed drought. The first drought cycle imposed strong limitations on carbon assimilation and photochemistry in both genotypes and developmental stages. However, subsequent cycles resulted in attenuated reductions in A and g, improved intrinsic water use efficiency, and partial stabilization of PSII performance, indicating a modified stress-response trajectory. Young plants displayed earlier improvements (from the second cycle), whereas in mature plants this shift was evident mainly during the third cycle. Recurrent drought promoted sustained reorganization of amino acid, carbohydrate, organic acid and polyol metabolism alongside increased root biomass and higher relative water content during later cycles. Importantly, propagules derived from drought-conditioned plants exhibited faster recovery of photosynthetic performance and reduced cumulative physiological impairment under renewed drought, despite showing similar stress sensitivity at maximum water deficit. This persistence of enhanced recovery capacity across vegetative propagation indicates that drought-induced memory was maintained beyond the initially stressed plants. Together, our findings demonstrate that recurrent drought establishes a metabolically imprinted state in clonal sugarcane, integrating physiological adjustment, metabolic reprogramming, and whole-plant acclimation. These results highlight the potential of stress memory as a mechanism supporting resilience in perennial crops exposed to increasingly recurrent drought events.