USE OF CELL AND TISSUE CULTURE IN SUGARCANE PLANT IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

Sugarcane is an industrial crop and plays a considerable role in the world economy. Almost, 80% of the world sugar is produced from sugarcane and the rest is from sugar beet. In 1960’s biotechnological research work start on sugarcane crop with in vitro culture worldwide. Efforts to improve sugarcane crop by molecular applications have commenced in last five years in Pakistan. As sugarcane crop have limitations such as complex genome size (2n = 120-180), narrow genetic base, poor fertility, susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses and long duration to breed elite genotypes. It is a suitable candidate for application of biotechnology and genetic engineering tools. Biotechnological applications for sugarcane plant improvement have been applied in the areas of: (1). Cell and tissue culture for rapid propagation genetic transformation and molecular breeding (transgenic and marker assisted breeding) (2). Molecular diagnostics of sugarcane pathogens (3). Use of molecular markers for development of genetic maps (4). Variety identification and testing and (5). Molecular characterization of various traits. The purpose of this review is to highlight the recent research work done in sugarcane biotechnology in Pakistan with special focus on cell and tissue culture for rapid propagation genetic transformation for sugarcane plant improvement.