Problems of Cane Breeding at the Present Stage of China from a Cytological Point of View

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From 1949 to the early 1970s, the sugarcane industry in China produced new clones that were well received by sugarcane growers. It became increasingly difficult to produce new clones, and a search for new germ plasm was conducted in the 1970s. Lines of Saccharum spontaneum were collected, and cytological observations on ca. 80 of these lines revealed 2n = 80, 64, 72, 68, and 116. Clones YC55/7 and 55/12, derived by crossing PO J2878 and Ya Cheng spontaneum, were shown to have arisen from self-pollination of POJ2878. The chromosome number of clone YC58/43, which was the F~1 offspring of Badila and Ya Cheng spontaneum, increased by 50%. After the second nobilization, a commercial variety, YT64/395, was produced. For efficient sugarcane breeding, unintegrated independent breeding projects must be rejected. Chromosome counts on a large scale, selection based on chromosome variation and phenotype, and hybridization of plants drawn and executed according to the theory of nobilization must be stressed.