Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 January 2023) | Viewed by 12794

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
2. National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, Ministry of Science &Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: crop genetics and biotechnology; molecular interaction between crop and pathogen; gene mining and function identification; molecular breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
2. National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, Ministry of Science&Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: molecular breeding; crop genetics and biotechnology; mechanism of crop stress response; gene mining and function identification; genetic mechanism of sugarcane agronomic traits
1. Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: plant biotechnology and molecular biology; interaction mechanisms between plant and pathogen; gene cloning and functional analysis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Genetics, Breeding and Multiple Utilization of Crops, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Interests: stress tolerance; abiotic stress physiology of crops; nitrogen use efficiency; transcription factor; molecular breeding

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sugarcane is a tall, perennial, C4 plant. Globally, it is the most important sugar crop and has the greatest potential as a bioenergy crop. It is mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Sugar is a pure, natural food provided by nature to human beings. As a necessary part of daily life, it brings people physical pleasure and psychological happiness. As one of the three major nutrients (sugar, fat and protein), sugar is the most important source of energy for the human body. Most of the energy consumed by human activities is provided by sugar. As the saying goes, "no sugar, no sweet ". A little sugar in life will make things much more sweet.

As a highly complex polyploid, sugarcane breeding depends on the phenotypic identification and selection of a large segregating population. The lack of phenotypically independent techniques for accurate identification and selection of excellent genotypes leads to low breeding efficiency, and a lack of cultivated varieties with excellent yield, quality and resistance. Germplasm is the source of variation created in the breeding process. There are many sugarcane germplasm resources around the world, but they are not very effectively utilized. It is urgent to develop systematic / accurate identification technology for gene resources. Serious diseases, pests and weeds, the frequent occurrence of low temperature, poor ratooning and low nitrogen use efficiency in sugarcane areas have become limiting factors regarding industrial quality and efficiency improvement. In addition, sugarcane production is labor-intensive. The low mechanization level and high labor cost of sugarcane production have become important factors restricting the sustainable development of the industry. The mechanization of the entire production process is not only a fundamental way to solve the problem of labor, but also an important means to reform modern agricultural production modes and technologies, break through the bottleneck of sugarcane yield per unit area, save energy and reduce consumption. The response and adaptation mechanism, or in other words, the biology of sugarcane in response to the above-mentioned factors, is unclear. This limits variety improvement and cultivation regulation, and seriously restricts industrial development. Therefore, only by improving the productivity of sugarcane, thus increasing the sugar yield per unit area, can we improve sugar’s self-sufficiency rate and ensure its supply safety. Only by improving the efficiency of sugarcane planting can the sugarcane industry develop continuously.

Considering all the above, it is necessary to strengthen targeted research and promote the solution of relevant technical problems in sugarcane. The aim of this Special Issue is to share the progresses of both basic and applied researches regarding improving sugarcane productivity, coping with biotic and abiotic stresses, and supporting technologies of agricultural machinery and agronomy. The Special Issue, “Sugarcane biology and genetic breeding”, welcomes original research and review papers on the excavation and identification of biological and genetic factors at the phenotype, gene, protein and metabolite levels, as well as the technological and methodological advances in the field, to create a forum for the future of sugarcane science. The development of new bioinformatics tools and databases related to sugarcane biology and genetic breeding are also welcomed. We sincerely invite colleagues at home and abroad to work together to speed up research on sugarcane biology and genetic breeding, to jointly help the development of the sugarcane industry."

Prof. Dr. Youxiong Que
Prof. Dr. Liping Xu
Dr. Yachun Su
Dr. Jinlong Guo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • sugarcane biology
  • germplasm characterization
  • biotic and abiotic stress tolerance
  • gene expression
  • protein regulation
  • metabolite signature
  • physiological mechanisms
  • marker-assisted selection
  • breeding methods and techniques
  • genetic breeding

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3578 KiB  
Article
Identification and Expression Analysis of Hexokinases Family in Saccharum spontaneum L. under Drought and Cold Stresses
by Ying Liu, Yaolan Jiang, Xiaolan Liu, Hefen Cheng, Yuekun Han, Dawei Zhang, Jinfeng Wu, Lili Liu, Mingli Yan, Youxiong Que and Dinggang Zhou
Plants 2023, 12(6), 1215; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12061215 - 07 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1152
Abstract
In plants, the multi-gene family of dual-function hexokinases (HXKs) plays an important role in sugar metabolism and sensing, that affects growth and stress adaptation. Sugarcane is an important sucrose crop and biofuel crop. However, little is known about the HXK gene family in [...] Read more.
In plants, the multi-gene family of dual-function hexokinases (HXKs) plays an important role in sugar metabolism and sensing, that affects growth and stress adaptation. Sugarcane is an important sucrose crop and biofuel crop. However, little is known about the HXK gene family in sugarcane. A comprehensive survey of sugarcane HXKs, including physicochemical properties, chromosomal distribution, conserved motifs, and gene structure was conducted, identifying 20 members of the SsHXK gene family that were located on seven of the 32 Saccharum spontaneum L. chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the SsHXK family could be divided into three subfamilies (group I, II and III). Motifs and gene structure were related to the classification of SsHXKs. Most SsHXKs contained 8–11 introns which was consistent with other monocots. Duplication event analysis indicated that HXKs in S. spontaneum L. primarily originated from segmental duplication. We also identified putative cis-elements in the SsHXK promoter regions which were involved in phytohormone, light and abiotic stress responses (drought, cold et al.). During normal growth and development, 17 SsHXKs were constitutively expressed in all ten tissues. Among them, SsHXK2, SsHXK12 and SsHXK14 had similar expression patterns and were more highly expressed than other genes at all times. The RNA-seq analysis showed that 14/20 SsHXKs had the highest expression level after cold stress for 6 h, especially SsHXK15, SsHXK16 and SsHXK18. As for drought treatment, 7/20 SsHXKs had the highest expression level after drought stress for 10 days, 3/20 (SsHKX1, SsHKX10 and SsHKX11) had the highest expression level after 10 days of recovery. Overall, our results revealed the potential biological function of SsHXKs, which may provide information for in-depth functional verification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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14 pages, 2198 KiB  
Article
Simulation of Photosynthetic Quantum Efficiency and Energy Distribution Analysis Reveals Differential Drought Response Strategies in Two (Drought-Resistant and -Susceptible) Sugarcane Cultivars
by Dongsheng An, Baoshan Zhao, Yang Liu, Zhijun Xu, Ran Kong, Chengming Yan and Junbo Su
Plants 2023, 12(5), 1042; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051042 - 24 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1094
Abstract
Selections of drought-tolerant cultivars and drought-stress diagnosis are important for sugarcane production under seasonal drought, which becomes a crucial factor causing sugarcane yield reduction. The main objective of this study was to investigate the differential drought-response strategies of drought-resistant (‘ROC22’) and -susceptible (‘ROC16’) [...] Read more.
Selections of drought-tolerant cultivars and drought-stress diagnosis are important for sugarcane production under seasonal drought, which becomes a crucial factor causing sugarcane yield reduction. The main objective of this study was to investigate the differential drought-response strategies of drought-resistant (‘ROC22’) and -susceptible (‘ROC16’) sugarcane cultivars via photosynthetic quantum efficiency (Φ) simulation and analyze photosystem energy distribution. Five experiments were conducted to measure chlorophyll fluorescence parameters under different photothermal and natural drought conditions. The response model of Φ to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), temperature (T), and the relative water content of the substrate (rSWC) was established for both cultivars. The results showed that the decreasing rate of Φ was higher at lower temperatures than at higher temperatures, with increasing PAR under well-watered conditions. The drought-stress indexes (εD) of both cultivars increased after rSWC decreased to the critical values of 40% and 29% for ‘ROC22’ and ‘ROC16’, respectively, indicating that the photosystem of ‘ROC22’ reacted more quickly than that of ‘ROC16’ to water deficit. An earlier response and higher capability of nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) accompanied the slower and slighter increments of the yield for other energy losses (ΦNO) for ‘ROC22’ (at day5, with a rSWC of 40%) compared with ‘ROC16’ (at day3, with a rSWC of 56%), indicating that a rapid decrease in water consumption and an increase in energy dissipation involved in delaying the photosystem injury could contribute to drought tolerance for sugarcane. In addition, the rSWC of ‘ROC16’ was lower than that of ‘ROC22’ throughout the drought treatment, suggesting that high water consumption might be adverse to drought tolerance of sugarcane. This model could be applied for drought-tolerance assessment or drought-stress diagnosis for sugarcane cultivars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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16 pages, 2630 KiB  
Article
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis Improves Ex Vitro Acclimatization of Sugarcane Plantlets (Saccharum spp.) under Drought Stress Conditions
by José Luis Spinoso-Castillo, María del Rosario Moreno-Hernández, Eucario Mancilla-Álvarez, Lino Sánchez-Segura, Ricardo Sánchez-Páez and Jericó Jabín Bello-Bello
Plants 2023, 12(3), 687; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030687 - 03 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2135
Abstract
The symbiotic associations between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plants can induce drought stress tolerance. In this study, we evaluated the effect of Glomus intraradices, a mycorrhizal fungus, on the ex vitro development and survival of sugarcane plantlets subjected to drought stress [...] Read more.
The symbiotic associations between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plants can induce drought stress tolerance. In this study, we evaluated the effect of Glomus intraradices, a mycorrhizal fungus, on the ex vitro development and survival of sugarcane plantlets subjected to drought stress during the acclimatization stage of micropropagation. In vitro obtained sugarcane plantlets (Saccharum spp. cv Mex 69–290) were inoculated with different doses of G. intraradices (0, 100, and 200 spores per plantlet) during greenhouse acclimatization. Sixty days after inoculation, plantlets were temporarily subjected to drought stress. We evaluated the survival rate, total chlorophyll, total protein, carotenoids, proline, betaine glycine, soluble phenolic content, and antioxidant capacity every 3 days for 12 days. Symbiotic interaction was characterized by microscopy. Our results showed that the survival rate of inoculated plants was higher in 45% than the treatment without mycorrhizae. Total chlorophyll, protein, proline, betaine glycine content, and antioxidant capacity were increased in AMF inoculated plants. The soluble phenolic content was higher in non-inoculated plants than the treatment with mycorrhizae during the drought stress period. Microscopy showed the symbiotic relationship between plant and AMF. The early inoculation of 100 spores of G. intraradices per sugarcane plantlet during the acclimatization stage could represent a preconditioning advantage before transplanting into the field and establishing basic seedbeds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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15 pages, 3148 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of a Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) Hybrid F1 Population Phenotypic Diversity and Construction of a Rapid Sucrose Yield Estimation Model for Breeding
by Zhijun Xu, Ran Kong, Dongsheng An, Xuejiao Zhang, Qibiao Li, Huzi Nie, Yang Liu and Junbo Su
Plants 2023, 12(3), 647; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030647 - 01 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1612
Abstract
Sugarcane is the major sugar-producing crop worldwide, and hybrid F1 populations are the primary populations used in breeding. Challenged by the sugarcane genome’s complexity and the sucrose yield’s quantitative nature, phenotypic selection is still the most commonly used approach for high-sucrose yield [...] Read more.
Sugarcane is the major sugar-producing crop worldwide, and hybrid F1 populations are the primary populations used in breeding. Challenged by the sugarcane genome’s complexity and the sucrose yield’s quantitative nature, phenotypic selection is still the most commonly used approach for high-sucrose yield sugarcane breeding. In this study, a hybrid F1 population containing 135 hybrids was constructed and evaluated for 11 traits (sucrose yield (SY) and its related traits) in a randomized complete-block design during two consecutive growing seasons. The results revealed that all the traits exhibited distinct variation, with the coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 0.09 to 0.35, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H′) ranging between 2.64 and 2.98, and the broad-sense heritability ranging from 0.75 to 0.84. Correlation analysis revealed complex correlations between the traits, with 30 trait pairs being significantly correlated. Eight traits, including stalk number (SN), stalk diameter (SD), internode length (IL), stalk height (SH), stalk weight (SW), Brix (B), sucrose content (SC), and yield (Y), were significantly positively correlated with sucrose yield (SY). Cluster analysis based on the 11 traits divided the 135 F1 hybrids into three groups, with 55 hybrids in Group I, 69 hybrids in Group II, and 11 hybrids in Group III. The principal component analysis indicated that the values of the first four major components’ vectors were greater than 1 and the cumulative contribution rate reached 80.93%. Based on the main component values of all samples, 24 F1 genotypes had greater values than the high-yielding parent ‘ROC22’ and were selected for the next breeding stage. A rapid sucrose yield estimation equation was established using four easily measured sucrose yield-related traits through multivariable linear stepwise regression. The model was subsequently confirmed using 26 sugarcane cultivars and 24 F1 hybrids. This study concludes that the sugarcane F1 population holds great genetic diversity in sucrose yield-related traits. The sucrose yield estimation model, ySY=2.01xSN+8.32xSD+0.79xB+3.44xSH47.64, can aid to breed sugarcane varieties with high sucrose yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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15 pages, 5056 KiB  
Article
Variety-Specific Flowering of Sugarcane Induced by the Smut Fungus Sporisorium scitamineum
by Liang Shuai, Hairong Huang, Lingyan Liao, Zhenhua Duan, Xiaoqiu Zhang, Zeping Wang, Jingchao Lei, Weihua Huang, Xiaohang Chen, Dongmei Huang, Qiufang Li, Xiupeng Song and Meixin Yan
Plants 2023, 12(2), 316; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12020316 - 09 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1761
Abstract
Sugarcane smut is the most severe sugarcane disease in China. The typical symptom is the emerging of a long, black whip from the top of the plant cane. However, in 2018, for the first time we observed the floral structures of sugarcane infected [...] Read more.
Sugarcane smut is the most severe sugarcane disease in China. The typical symptom is the emerging of a long, black whip from the top of the plant cane. However, in 2018, for the first time we observed the floral structures of sugarcane infected by smut fungus in the planting fields of China. Such smut-associated inflorescence in sugarcane was generally curved and short, with small black whips emerging from glumes of a single floret on the cane stalk. Compatible haploid strains, named Ssf1-7 (MAT-1) and Ssf1-8 (MAT-2), isolated from teliospores that formed black whips in inflorescence of sugarcane were selected for sexual mating assay, ITS DNA sequencing analysis and pathogenicity assessment. The isolates Ssf1-7 and Ssf1-8 showed stronger sexual mating capability than the reported Sporisorium scitamineum strains Ss17 and Ss18. The ITS DNA sequence of the isolates Ssf1-7 and Ssf1-8 reached 100% similarity to the isolates of S. scitamineum strains available in GenBank. Inoculating Ssf1-7 + Ssf1-8 to six sugarcane varieties, i.e., GT42, GT44, GT49, GT55, LC05-136 and ROC22, resulted in different smut morphological modifications. The symptoms of floral structure only occurred in LC05-136, indicating that the flowering induction by S. scitamineum is variety-specific. Furthermore, six selected flowering-related genes were found to be differentially expressed in infected Ssf1-7 + Ssf1-8 LC05-13 plantlets compared to uninfected ones. It is concluded that the flowering induction by S. scitamineum depends on specific fungal race and sugarcane variety, suggesting a specific pathogen–host interaction and expression of some flowering-related genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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25 pages, 11201 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization, and Expression Analysis of Glutamate Receptor-like Gene (GLR) Family in Sugarcane
by Jing Zhang, Tianzhen Cui, Yachun Su, Shoujian Zang, Zhennan Zhao, Chang Zhang, Wenhui Zou, Yanling Chen, Yue Cao, Yao Chen, Youxiong Que, Niandong Chen and Jun Luo
Plants 2022, 11(18), 2440; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11182440 - 19 Sep 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2029
Abstract
The plant glutamate receptor-like gene (GLR) plays a vital role in development, signaling pathways, and in its response to environmental stress. However, the GLR gene family has not been comprehensively and systematically studied in sugarcane. In this work, 43 GLR genes, [...] Read more.
The plant glutamate receptor-like gene (GLR) plays a vital role in development, signaling pathways, and in its response to environmental stress. However, the GLR gene family has not been comprehensively and systematically studied in sugarcane. In this work, 43 GLR genes, including 34 in Saccharum spontaneum and 9 in the Saccharum hybrid cultivar R570, were identified and characterized, which could be divided into three clades (clade I, II, and III). They had different evolutionary mechanisms, the former was mainly on the WGD/segmental duplication, while the latter mainly on the proximal duplication. Those sugarcane GLR proteins in the same clade had a similar gene structure and motif distribution. For example, 79% of the sugarcane GLR proteins contained all the motifs, which proved the evolutionary stability of the sugarcane GLR gene family. The diverse cis-acting regulatory elements indicated that the sugarcane GLRs may play a role in the growth and development, or under the phytohormonal, biotic, and abiotic stresses. In addition, GO and KEGG analyses predicted their transmembrane transport function. Based on the transcriptome data, the expression of the clade III genes was significantly higher than that of the clade I and clade II. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis demonstrated that the expression of the SsGLRs was induced by salicylic acid (SA) treatment, methyl jasmonic acid (MeJA) treatment, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment, suggesting their involvement in the hormone synthesis and signaling pathway. Taken together, the present study should provide useful information on comparative genomics to improve our understanding of the GLR genes and facilitate further research on their functions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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14 pages, 3409 KiB  
Article
Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Two Sugarcane Cultivars in Response to Paclobutrazol Treatment
by Ronghua Zhang, Haibi Li, Yiyun Gui, Jinju Wei, Kai Zhu, Hui Zhou, Prakash Lakshmanan, Lianying Mao, Manman Lu, Junxian Liu, Youxiong Que, Song Li and Xihui Liu
Plants 2022, 11(18), 2417; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11182417 - 16 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1278
Abstract
Sugarcane is an important crop across the globe, and the rapid multiplication of excellent cultivars is an important object of the sugarcane industry. As one of the plant growth regulators, paclobutrazol (PBZ) has been frequently used in the tissue culture of sugarcane seedlings. [...] Read more.
Sugarcane is an important crop across the globe, and the rapid multiplication of excellent cultivars is an important object of the sugarcane industry. As one of the plant growth regulators, paclobutrazol (PBZ) has been frequently used in the tissue culture of sugarcane seedlings. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of response to PBZ in this crop. Here, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis between sensitive (LC05−136) and non−sensitive (GGZ001) sugarcane cultivars treated by PBZ at three time points (0 d, 10 d, and 30 d) using RNA sequencing (RNA−Seq). The results showed that approximately 70.36 Mb of clean data for each sample were generated and assembled into 239,212 unigenes. A total of 6108 and 4404 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified within the sensitive and non−sensitive sugarcane cultivars, respectively. Among them, DEGs in LC05−136 were most significantly enriched in the photosynthesis and valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation pathways, while in GGZ001, DEGs associated with ion channels and plant–pathogen interaction were mainly observed. Notably, many interesting genes, including those encoding putative regulators, key components of photosynthesis, amino acids degradation and glutamatergic synapse, were identified, revealing their importance in the response of sugarcane to PBZ. Furthermore, the expressions of sixteen selected DEGs were tested by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT−qPCR), confirming the reliability of the RNA−seq data used in this study. These results provide valuable information regarding the transcriptome changes in sugarcane treated by PBZ and provide an insight into understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the resistance to PBZ in sugarcane. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding)
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