Ruiqiang Lai, Ming Chen, Jiarui Chen, Jiakun Wen, YiQi Luo, Zaid Chachar, Mengshi Wang, Jiajia Li, Zhaofeng Liu, Zixuan Zhen, Xiaodi Zhen, Zhichong Li, Runbing Ling, Xiaolong Wang, Weiqian Cai, Songmei Liu, Lina Fan, Yongwen Qi
Sugarcane ( Saccharum spp.) is a vital crop worldwide for sugar production. Therefore, improving yield, quality, and stress resistance is a primary goal of modern sugarcane breeding efforts. Sucrose invertase is a critical enzyme in sugar metabolism and plays an important role in plant growth, development, and stress responses. This study systematically identified the invertase gene family in sugarcane by employing the telomere-to-telomere complete genome of the sugarcane cultivar ‘Xintaitang 22. ’ A total of 225 invertase genes were identified, which was significantly greater than that in related crops, such as maize, sorghum, and rice, revealing substantial expansion of this gene family in the polyploid genome. Evolutionary and collinearity analyses showed that the expansion of this family is primarily driven by segmental duplications accompanied by tandem duplication events. Promoter analysis demonstrated that most members were enriched with cis-regulatory elements associated with auxin, gibberellin, light response, and various abiotic stresses, indicating their broad involvement in developmental regulation and stress adaptation. The study identified a chloroplast-localized protein ShN/AINV3.1 (Sh_So05A0220418), as a key factor regulating sugarcane agronomic traits and stress responses. This gene is drought-inducible and its overexpression promotes plant growth, increases glucose content, and enhances catalase activity, thereby synergistically improving drought tolerance in sugarcane. In summary, this study systematically elucidated the evolutionary characteristics and regulatory potential of the invertase gene family in sugarcane and revealed a potential mechanism by which ShN/AINV3.1, which integrates sugar metabolism and oxidative stress defense to enhance drought resistance. These findings provide important genetic resources and a theoretical basis for molecular breeding of sugarcane.