Abstract
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is one of the most important industrial cash crops, contributing to the world sugar industry and biofuel production. It has been cultivated and improved from prehistoric times through natural selection and conventional breeding and, more recently, using the modern tools of genetic engineering and biotechnology. However, the heterogenicity, complex poly-aneuploid genome and susceptibility of sugarcane to different biotic and abiotic stresses represent impediments that require us to pay greater attention to the improvement of the sugarcane crop. Compared to traditional breeding, recent advances in breeding technologies (molecular marker-assisted breeding, sugarcane transformation, genome-editing and multiple omics technologies) can potentially improve sugarcane, especially against environmental stressors. This article will focus on efficient modern breeding technologies, which provide crucial clues for the engineering of sugarcane cultivars resistant to environmental stresses.
Highlights
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an important agricultural crop for various subtropical and tropical countries, such as Brazil, India, Thailand, China, Australia, Pakistan, Philippines, Cuba, Colombia, and the USA [1]
Sugarcane embryonic calli treated with ethyl-methane sulphonate (EMS) were grown under drought and salt stress conditions, and tolerant lines were separated from the controls, based on the polymorphisms revealed by the RAPD profiles [59]
Significant variation was observed in four genes encoding stress-related proteins, namely, late-embryogenesis abundant protein-3 (LEA3), early responsive dehydration protein-4 (ERD4), pyrroline-5-carboxylase synthase (P5CS), and galactinol synthase (GolS)
Summary
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is an important agricultural crop for various subtropical and tropical countries, such as Brazil, India, Thailand, China, Australia, Pakistan, Philippines, Cuba, Colombia, and the USA [1]. The current commercial sugarcane cultivars, which are allopolyploids of high ploidy level, contain a narrow genetic range due to breeding via popular cultivars of the early 1900s, e.g., NCo310, Co419, and POJ2878 [5], whereas more recent cultivars have been developed via interspecific hybridisation of S. officinarum and S. spontaneum [6]. Molecular markers associated with specific loci of the genome could be used for the analysis and detection of various genotypes in a gene pool of sugarcane [20] Omics technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics reveal complex connections between metabolites, proteins, and genes, which could help understand the genetic regulation and molecular mechanisms controlling both yield and stress resistance [21]. This review attempts to provide comprehensive information regarding sugarcane genetic improvement for developing cultivars possessing better survival capacity in response to biotic and abiotic stresses, highlighting the different molecular techniques of that can be applied to achieve this goal
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