BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES FOR HIGH SUGARCANE YIELD (original) (raw)

In sugarcane, biotechnological applications are yielding encouraging results in the areas of genome characterization, mapping for specific traits, molecular variability of pathogens, marker aided selection for insect/disease resistance, transformation, precise detection of plant pathogens etc. Increased sensitivity has generally made the assays for pathogens more reliable and contributes in making the assays more rapid and economical for routine detection and identification. Tissue culture is playing an important role in improving the plant quality and producing pathogen free plants. This can be used to produce clones of phytoplasma infected plants that are healthy. For virus elimination the micropropagation using the shoot apical meristem as the explants is the best way to produce virus free plants. Research efforts need to be made to minimize somaclonal variation for use in clonal propagation and transgenic research. New information on the molecular biology and genetics of selected tropical crop plants need to be generated. Genomics structure should be worked out to identify markers linked to important agronomics traits. Transgene constructs that mitigate potential environmental and biosafety risks of transgenic plants need to be developed so that it can be managed. Regulatory controls over metabolisms need to be identified and characterized to improve yield and quality of sugarcane.