Wild Relatives of Sugarcane Sweeten Breeding Program

Imported clones form China produced from crosses between sugarcane and three wild relatives of sugarcane are now available to Australian sugarcane breeding programs. These clones could widen the otherwise limited genetic base of commercial sugarcane varieties, which are based on a small number of clones from crosses between Saccharum spontaneum (a wild cane species) and Saccharum officiarum (the original sugarcane used in agriculture).

"We want to evaluate the yield potential and performance of progeny from crosses between these clones and the best parents from Australian breeding programs”, says Dr Philip Jackson, key researcher in the project that seeks to breed better sugarcane varieties for Australia. “We are especially interested in performance in dry environments and ability to re-shoot or ‘ratoon’.” Crossing started two weeks ago at Macknade experiment station in North Queensland, and seedlings from the crosses will be grown in the next few months.

The news article is available at http://www.csiro.au/news/WildRelativesForSugarcane.html.