Callus Induction, Regeneration and Response to Different Selective Agent Concentrations of Sugarcane Genotypes

Sugarcane is a primary industrial cash crop, planted for sugar and bioethanol production. Of the world's total sugar production, 80 percent comes from sugarcane. Since efficient tissue culture system is an initial step towards genetic modification of sugarcane, Ghulam Raza and other researchers from the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Pakistan, investigated the callus formation and regeneration of two commercial cultivars (CPF -245 and CPF-237) and three advanced lines (CSSG-668, S-2003US633, S-2003US114) of sugarcane in Pakistan.

Results showed that CSSG-668 is the best genotype yielding the most number of embryogenic calli, and roots and shoots produced. On the other hand, cultivar CPF-245 exhibited lowest number of calli. The cultivars were subjected to different concentrations (0 to 80 mg/L) of the selective agent geneticin (G-418) to identify the optimal selection condition for transformation. Results also showed that the optimal geneticin dose for selection of callus for CSSG-668, CPF-245 and S-2003US63 is 60 mg/L, while for S-2003US-114 is 35 mg/L. For the same concentration of 60 mg/L, CSSG-668 and CPF-245 lines exhibited the best plantlet selection, while 40mg/L is best for S-2003US-114 and 25mg/L for S-2003US-633. Therefore, 25 to 60 mg/L is the best geniticin concentration for the selection of calli and regenerants (roots and shoots) for the transformation of sugarcane.

Read the research article at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF/pdf2010/20Dec/Raza%20et%20al.pdf.