Enhancing sugarcane growth quality and productivity through a biotechnology approach

¹ Center for Development of Advanced Science and Technology (CDAST)
² Department of Biology Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, Jember University. Jl. Kalimantan No. 37 Kampus Tegalboto, Jember, 68121, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: sugiharto.fmipa@unej.ac.id

Abstract

Sugarcane is a major crop to produce sugar accounting for nearly 80% of sugar production worldwide. Sugarcane is well adapted to warm climates and accumulated high biomass quantities for bioelectricity and second-generation bioethanol. Although Indonesia is one among the cane sugar producers, the produced sugar has been unable to meet the national sugar demand. The study of physiology, molecular biology and genetic is providing a major impetus to develop biotechnological strategies for increasing growth and productivity in sugarcane. Genetic transformation method for sugarcane has been established, including Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method. The Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been successfully employed to develop transgenic sugarcane. The overexpression of SoSPS gene encoding for sucrosephosphate synthase (SPS) showed the increases of activity and sucrose content in transgenic sugarcane. Furthermore, field evaluation on growth and productivity of the transgenic sugarcane displayed higher tiller number, plant high, cane yield, percentage of Brix and Pol compared to nontransgenic sugarcane. Furthermore, plants are subjected to a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses, which reduces and limits crop productivity. Plants adapt to water stress with various strategies include change in the gene expression and accumulation of organic compounds called compatible solutes. Genetic transformation of betA gene encoding for choline dehydrogenase in bacteria elevated glycine-betaine content as an osmoprotectant and resulted in water stress tolerant of transgenic sugarcane. The drought tolerant of sugarcane was already approved and released by Indonesian Government for commercialization. In addition, mosaic virus is one of the most severe diseases in sugarcane and lead to the constant losses in growth and yield of sugarcane. Pathogen-derived resistance (PDR) and RNA interference (RNAi) technologies have been applied to engineered sugarcane cultivar resistant to mosaic virus, and that the RNAi method produced more resistant against the mosaic virus in sugarcane. Finaly, biotechnology approach of genome editing technology should be exploited to ensure higher sugarcane productivity, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.