Genetic diversity and mechanisms of salt tolerance of Miscanthus

Miscanthus is a perennial grass with a C4 photosynthetic pathway and characterized by high productivity and resource use efficiency, which makes it favorable for bioenergy production. In order to avoid competition with food crops, Miscanthus will need be grown on underutilized marginal lands like saline soils. Planting Miscanthus in marginal areas and maintaining economically viable yields and quality depend on suitable genotypes, and evaluation of the performance of Miscanthus germplasm under salt stress and identifying salt tolerant genotypes for cultivation on saline soils or as breeding parents to improve salt tolerance are essential for sustainable bioenergy production. Therefore, several screening systems and experimental approaches were applied to identify genetic variation for salt tolerance, elucidate the salt tolerance mechanisms underlying this variation in Miscanthus. The result showed that genotypes with high yield and quality under salt stress are recommended as potential genotypes for breeding or direct production on marginal lands.