Sugarcane

Introduction
Cultivated
species
Wild species
cytogenetics
Floral biology
Breeding
objectives
Breeding
methods
Innovative
approach
varieties

INTRODUCTION:
 Sugarcane is native to southeasternAsia,with its cultivation in India
dating since before 5,000 years ago.
 Brazil is the largest sugarcaneproducer,contributing with 40% of
the world production (700 MT in 2009),followed by India (285
MT), China (114 MT),Thailand , Pakistan , Colombia ,Australia ,
Argentina , UnitedStates , Indonesia and the Philippines .
 The plant is semi-perennial,ranging from12-18 months from
planting to harvest at tropical conditions.

 This species has C4 photosynthesis,resulting in a vigorous biomass
accumulation under tropical conditions than in temperate
conditions.
 Sugarcane stores energy as the non-reducing disaccharide sucrose,
which accumulates in large amounts in the vacuoles of parenchyma
cells of stem tissues.
 Sugarcane contributes ~70% raw table sugar production worldwide
(Contreras et al.,2009).

 It is the second largest agro industrial crop next to cotton.
 Cultivated around 4.85 million hectare producing 324.9 MT o
sugarcane with average productivity of 669 quintals per ha in India.
 Mostly cultivated in subtropical belt across North India from Assam
to Punjab

SUGARCANE
Saccharam officinarum, 2n=80
Family-poaceae
Centre of origin- New Guinea.
Saccharam species:
Cultivated species:
 S.Officinarum
 S.Barberi
 S.sinense
Wild species
 S.spontaneum
 S.robustum

S.Officinarum 2n=80.
 Origin:New Guinea
 Noble canes
 Cultivated species known for thick juicy canes with high sucrose
and low fibre content.
 Originated from S.robustum due to natural and human selection in
New Guinea.
S.Barberi 2n=80-124
North Indian canes having thin with short cylinderical internodes .
Barber classified into five groups:
 Mungo
 Nargori
 Saretha
 Sunnabile
 Pansahi
Used for sugar production in North India at earlier days.

S.sinense:2n=118
 Chinese cane, native of burma china region.
 Taller plants,broader leaves with wider adaptability and
early maturilty.
 High fibre content and poor quality juice.
S.robustum :2n=60,80
 Perennial, growing upto 10 m
 Stems are hardy, woody and pithy in center with little
juice
 The canes are short medium to slender thickness
 Tolerant to true saline alkaline and water logged
conditions.

S.spontaneum, 2n=40-128
 Wild species, found in Indonesia and New Guinea.
 Characterized by lack of rhizomes , thick stem, tall habit
, high fibre content ,large inflorescence and small
spikelet.
 Imparted tolerance to stress, diseases and pest
hardiness and ratooning ability to present day cultivars.
S.edule:
 Due to its aborted inflorescence,It is of no use in
sugarcane improvement programme.

Related genera of saccharum:
Erianthus 2n=20-60
 Greek word “Erion”- wool and “anthos”- flower
 Wooly glumes.
 Primitive genus of saccharum complex.
Narenga 2n=30
 Found in India and South East Asia.
 Established by N.L.BOR in 1940.
 Closely related to Sclerostachya but differentiated by
presence of sessile spikelet in pairs, pubescent sheath and
leaf, bearded nodes

Sclerostachya 2n=30
 A.Camus in 1992
 Greek word “skleros”-hard and “stachys”- ear of spike
referring to rigid inflorescence or hard spikelet.
 India,burma,china,malaysia.
Miscanthus 2n=38-144
 Anderson in 1855.
 Distributedfrom Tahiti in pacific through east indonesia to
north china, japan, siberia.

Sugarcane germplasm:
Major part of sugarcane germplasm
 S.officinarum , S.barberi , S.robustum , S.edule are
maintained at sugarcane research institute ,regional
centre ,kannur in kerala.
 Wild species such as S.spontaneum,Erianthus ssp., and
related genera are maintained at coimbatore.

CYTOGENETICS OF SUGARCANE:
 Saccharum species are complex polyploids with high chromosome
number.
 modification on chromosome number – losses due to simple
meiotic irregularities.
 Most common basic chromosome number 8 and 10.
S.Officinarum ia an octaploid with a basic chromosome no.10.
Wild species:
S.spontaneum-2 polyploid group
 Group1-8
 Group2-10
S.robustum-has chromosome no of 10 as well as 8.
 highly polyploidy and tolerant to various aneuploid combinations.

Stalk:
 The stalk consists of segments called joints. Each joint is
made up of a node and an internode .
 The node is where the leaf attaches to the stalk and where
the buds and root primordia are found.
 The length and diameter of the joints vary widely with different
varieties and growing conditions.

 One bud is present on each node, and they alternate
between one side of the stalk to the other.
 Variations in size, shape and other characteristics of the bud
provide a means of distinguishing between varieties.
 When seed-caneis planted, each bud may form a primary
shoot. From this shoot, secondary shoots called “tillers” may
form from the underground buds on the primary shoot.
 In turn, additional tillers may form from the underground
secondary shoot buds.

 The colors of the stalk at the internodes depend on the
cane variety and environmental conditions.
 Exposure of the internodes to the sun may result in a
complete change of color.
 All colors of the stalk derive from two basic pigments:
 The red color of anthocyanin and the green of chlorophyll.
 The ratio of the concentration of these two pigments
produce colors from green to purple-red to red to almost
black.
 Yellow stalks indicate a relative lack of these pigments

 The top of the stalk is relatively low in sucrose but 1/3
contains many buds and a good supply of nutrients which
makes it valuable as seed cane for planting.
Two types of cracks are sometimes found on the surface of
the stalk:
 harmless, small corky cracks which are restricted to the
epidermis.
 Growth cracks which may be deep and run the whole length
of the internode.
 harmful-increased water loss and expose the stalk to disease
organisms and insects.
 Growth cracks are dependent on variety and growing
conditions.

Leaf:
The leaf of the sugarcane plant is
divided into two parts:
sheath and blade, separated by a
blade joint.
The leaves are usually attached
alternately to the nodes, thus forming
two ranks on opposite sides.
The mature sugarcane plant has an
average total upper leaf surface of
about 0.5 square meter and the
number of green leaves per stalk is
around ten, depending on variety and
growing conditions.

DEWLAPS:
 The blade joint is where two wedge-shaped areas called
“dewlaps”. The color, size, and shape of the dewlaps on a
mature plant are more or less characteristic of a variety.
 The “top visible dewlap” leaf is a diagnostic tissue that is
frequently used in nutritional studies.
LIGULE:
 The ligule is a membranous appendage inside of the sheath
that separates the sheath from the leaf blade.
 It is a slightly asymmetric organ whose color, size, and
shape are age and variety dependent.

AURICLES:
 The auricles are ear-shaped appendages located at the
upper part of the sheath margin. Not all sheath margins have
auricles
LEAF PUBESCENCE:
 Leaf pubescence or the covering of the various leaf parts
with short hairs, is also variety and age dependent.
 Pubescence is not found on the leaf blade of commercial
varieties, but does exist in sugarcane germplasm.
 Sheath pubescence can be used to identify plants.

ROOT SYSTEM
 Two kinds of roots will develop from a planted seed piece.
 The set roots are thin and highly branched.
 The shoot roots, originating from the lower root bands of the
shoots, are thick, fleshy and less branched .
 Before shoots form, the germinating seed piece must depend
entirely on the set roots for water and nutrients.
 The set roots are only temporary and their function will
eventually be taken over by the shoot roots as they develop.

 The life of the shoot root is also limited.
 Each new tiller will develop its own roots that eventually take
over the function of the original shoot roots.

Inflorescence:
 The inflorescence, or tassle, of
sugarcane is an open-branched panicle.
It is also known as arrow. Therefore
flowering is also known as "arrowing
 Each tassle consists of several
thousand tiny flowers, each capable of
producing one seed.
 The arrangement of the spikelets is
racemose.

 Flowering in sugarcane is controlled both by genetic factors
as well as environment.
 Sugarcane is a short day plant, flowering occurs with reduced
day length.
 Flowering is profuse in trophics particularly in latitudinal belts
from 50 to 150..In subtrophics flowering is sparse and defective
 Flower size,shape ,colour, degree of branching,droopiness
vary among species.
 Panicle is shortest in S.spontaneum and S.barberi,while it is
longest in S.oficinarum, Intermediate in S.sinense.
Sterile,compact and edible in S.edule.

 The main axis is Rachis and side axes are Rachilla,with up to
four order of branching.
 Spikelet is found in pairs,usually one is sessile and other
pedicellate.
 Each spikelet has long tufts of soft silky hairs at its base (calus)
which imparts a fluffy appearance to the entire panicle.
 Each spikelet has 2 florets:
 generally outer glume (I),inner or upper glume (II),enclosing a
sterile lemma (L1),palea absent,L2 and P2 encloses a fertile
flower.

Androecium: Stamens 1 to 6 or rarely more but usually 3 in
each floret, the old stamen is always anterior, filaments free,
anther dithecous, basifixed or versatile.
Gynoecium: Bi or tricarpellary, syncarpous, ovary superior,
unilocular containing 1 anatropous ovule, basal placentation,
style 1 to 3, often plumose or feather like.
Perianth: Absent or reduced to usually 2 to3 minute seeds
called lodicules.

Anthesis:
 Time of flower opening varies with variety and season
 Spikelets open from 3 am to 8 am but maximum flowering occurs
between 6am to 8am.
 Stigma protrudes first followed by anthers.
 Anthesis proceeds from tip downwards and complete in 7 to 14
days.
 Anther dehiscence is by a small slit . pollens are carried away
by wind (wind pollination)
 Influence of weather conditions:
 Cloudy or rainy day delay anthesis or dehiscence
 Sunny or wind day hasten anthesis or dehiscence

Selfing techniques:
Lantern method:
 Done by covering the arrow with a bamboo frame work
or a cage which is covered with a muslin cloth or
polythene paper .
 cover is commonly called lantern which is supported by
bamboo poles.
 The lantern has to be opened once in a day to reduce
the temperature that get raised inside during the day
time.
 This is done preferably during afternoon hours between
12 am and 4pm covers are to be retained till seed set.

Crossing:
Hybridization is very difficult.
 It is mostly vegetatively propagated. Some varieties seldom
flowers outside tropics. Some varieties flowers once in 6 to 8
months. It is highly controlled by photoperiods.
 Spikelets are minutes. So, hand emasculation is not
possible.
 Self sterility of both pollen and ovule predominates in almost
in all the varieties.
 Hot water treatment can not possible.

Coimbatore method
 During flowering period, the sugarcane stem will be cut
leaving one or two bud.
 The cut stem can be transferred to a mud pot having moist
mud.
 Within 10 days the buds will develop into roots and there
will be good root system.
 This can be transferred to the breeding block.
 In the crossing block, the male and female plants are covered
with common lantern.

 Free shedding pollen over female plant will occur.
 We can harvest both selfed and crossed seeds from the
female parent.
 The selfed seeds can be identified by chromosome
number by raising it in the nursery.
 Selfed seeds thus removed retaining crossed seeds.

Marcotting method
 During flowering, cut around the stem and tie a
polythene bag with nutrients (growth medium).
 The bud near cut end give rise to roots.
 This can be cut and used for hybridization
purposes. This method is called marcotting.
 Practiced inTNAU, Coimbatore and Sugarcane
Breeding Institute,Coimbatore.

Lantern method
 Providing Lantern for a female plant before anthesis
starts.
 From the desired male parent cut the arrow.
 That arrow can be introduced into the Lantern and
shaken up and thereby crossing can be effected.
 This will be repeated for 2-3 days in order to have
more seed set.

Hawaii method (Sulfurous acid Technique)
 A sulfurous acid solution keeps the inflorescence
alive for several weeks.
 Here, we cut both male and female flowering
arrows along with small portion of stem.
 These cut end will be immersed in a vessel
containing 0.01% sulphuric acid and 0.01%
phosphoric acid.
 The cut end at the lab is brought nearer and effect
cross pollination.

 They absorb the weak acids.
 We have to add weak solution daily to replace the acid
taken by stem.
 Once in a week we have to completely change the
solution.
 This is done for 20-30 days. During this time, the seed
will mature
 In modified method of this, the female plant alone is cut
and kept in weak acid at the time of flowering the male
parent can be brought nearer and the pollen can be
shed by shaking as done in Lantern method.

Breeding methods:
 Hybridization (crossing) is the main procedure used for
sugarcane to generate new genetic recombination
events.
 perform selection of superior genotypes, focusing on
sugar, ethanol or biomass production.
 conventional breeding is divided in three steps:
(i) parental selection
(ii)hybridization
(iii) selection of superior genotypes

Choice of parents:
 Florets are collected and pollen is quantified
 tested for viability using iodine staining,to decide which
genotype will be used as male, and a pollen fertility scale
is made to decide the direction of crosses.
 Clones with 0-30% pollen fertility are chosen as female
 50% and above-male
 30-50%-either as female or male.

Crossing procedure:
Biparental cross:
 Crossing of two known parents.(two parents of known
breeding value)
 Widely used by sugarcane workers.
 To avoid outcrossing ,the panicle of the female parent is
protected with cloth supported by lantern

AREA CROSS:
 Modification of biparental cross.
 In this system ,several male sterile clones are pollinated
by one male parent in an isolated area.
MELTING POT TECHNIQUE:
 Refers to system of poly cross technique.
 Crosses are made by bringing together arrow of large
number of superior cultivars in an isolated area.
 Natural cross pollination is allowed
 This procedure allows the evaluation of breeding
behaviour of large number of clones at a minimun
expense.

 An arrows of a number of desirable parents are kept in
a container containing 5 l of preservative solution.
 Many containers with different parents are maintained.
 Positions are changed daily to enhance random
pollination .
Hybridization:

Selection procedure:
Individual selection:
 selection of individual plants must be based only on
traits with high heritability, such as sugar content
measured by brix and disease resistance.
Family selection:
 whole progenies are completely selected or rejected,
according to its mean phenotypic value. Individual values
are not considered.
 Family selection is preferred when the trait under
selection presents low heritability, low environmental
variation and large families.

Sequential selection:
 Family selection efficiency can be enhanced by adding
individual selection within the best families
 also called selection among and between families.
 This system has generally found to give higher
realization of selectable types

BREEDING OBJECTIVES:
Breeding for high cane yield:
 Cane height, weight, thickness, tillering capacity contributes to the tonnage
of cane harvested per hectare.
 Primary selection – vigour of growth, tall large barreled canes with high
tillering capacity.
 Yield is also influenced by response to fertilization,tolerant to climatic
adversities and resistance to pest and diseases.
Breeding for high commercial cane sugar:
 Juciness of stem, sugar content and its recovery are important factors in
yield of commercial cane sugar per hectare.
 More progress has been made in increasing total sugar yield by breeding for
increased cane tonnage than by breeding or increased sucrose content

Breeding for high sucrose content:
 Through hybridization and selection process.
 Parental population with very high sucrose content through recurrent
selection process has given good results.
Breeding for early maturing varieties:
 Early maturing varieties attain 16%sucrose at 10 months of crop age.
 At present area under early maturing varieties is very less that restricts sugar
recovery in early crushing season..
 Major emphasis has to be given ..

Breeding for disease resistance:
Major sugarcane diseases:
 Red rot
 Smut
 Mosaic
 Ratoon stunting
 Rust
 Root rot
 Damage due to red rot is severe in subtropical regions.
Breeding for red rot resistance include two components :
 race specific –easy to breed,complete resistance..
 race non specific-difficult to breed,partial or stable resistance,additive
gene action.

Source of resistance:
source resistance
S.spontaneum Red rot resistance
S.officinarum Smut(Ustilago scitaminae)
S.spontaneum mosaic

Breeding for insect resistance:
 Resistance in sugarcane varieties has resulted due to no preference,
antibiosis, host evasion, escape..
 Sugarcane genotypes are evaluated for resistance or tolerance to pest.
 Pure clones are rated for their resistance while hybrids are rated for their
tolerance potential.
REGION MAJOR PESTS
Tropical areas Shoot borer
Internode borer
Scale insect
Sub tropical area Top borer
Shoot borer
pyrilla

Breeding for quality jaggery and fibre:
 For chewing purpose S.officinarum types are preferred due to its sot nature
of fibre.
 For whit sugar-hybrids having high sugar and moderate fibre content.
 Jaggery making-high sucrose, less non sugar component in cane juice, non
flowering, resistance to chlorosis and non lodging.
 For ethanol production directly from cane juice-high total sugars.
 Ideal cane for milling-moderate fibre content(12-13%) and vascular bundle
with high tensile strength.

Breeding for tolerant to abiotic stresses:
 Increased yield under stress conditions – cultural practices to alleviate stress
or genetically improved.
 Major stresses-drought, water logging, frost, high temperature, salinity.
 Features like osmotic adjustment , maintenance of high water potential, less
sensitivity to stress, accumulation of absiccic acid ,proline and betanine etc
have to be incorporated in varieties for drought tolerance.

 Water logging stress reduce cane yield by inducing early maturity, early
flowering and prolonged water logging deteriorates cane quality.
 Tolerant varieties should produce:
 Leaf at a faster rate
 Quicker growth rate
 Good ability to develop adventitious root and fibrous tissues or
intercellular space in existing root
 Delayed decline in nitrate reductase activity during water stagnation
period and resumption of such activity to the normal level on recede of
water.

Breeding for wider and local adaptation:
 Substantial level of G*E interaction for cane yield and its components.
 High yielding varieties with wider adaptation are hard to come by
 Greater emphasis is being given to location specific varieties to
capitalize on their inherent genetic potential.

INNOVATIVEAPPROACH:
Tissue culture:
 Several somaclones were developed with improved productivity
and eliminating the defects like leaf drying ,disease susceptibility.
 Somaclones with smut resistance were developed from CO 92029,
CO94012,CO93005,CO95016,CO99011,CO94003.
 Micropropagation techniques were developed at SBI,Cbe.

Genetic transformation in sugarcane:
 Transgenics was first developed for production of herbicide
resistance.
 Commercial variety CoC 671 was transformed using Bar gene.
 Fungal resistance- antifungal peptide DM-AMP1 gene and Rs-AFP 2
gene
 Insect resistance-Coc 671,Coc 92061,Co86032 was bombarded
with Cry A gene and genes coding for Aprotinin and protease
inhibitors.

Varieties:
 High sugar recovery:
CoC671,Co86032,Co8021
 Jaggery making
Co853,CoC671,CoG94077
 High cane yield and sugar yield:
CoSi 95071,Co90063,Co86249
 Red rot resistance:
Co86249,CoSi 95071

Reference:
Sugarcane Botany:A BriefView 1
J. D. Miller,R.A.Gilbert,and D. C. Odero
Challenges,Opportunities and
RecentAdvances in Sugarcane
Breeding
Katia C. Scortecci1,Silvana Creste2,
Tercilio Calsa Jr.3,MauroA.Xavier2,
Marcos G.A. Landell2,Antonio Figueira4
andVagnerA.Benedito5
TNAU agritech portal-CROP
IMPROVEMENT
Breeding of field crops:
D.N.BHARADWAJ

Sugarcane

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