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Sugarcane Underground Organs: Going Deep for Sustainable Production

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Abstract

Sugarcane breeding has greatly advanced in recent decades, but many aspects of sugarcane physiology are still poorly understood, including the root-shoot relationships that ultimately affect yield. Traditional methods for studying root systems are imprecise due to methodological difficulties of in situ assessment and sampling; this seems especially true for the sugarcane root system. Studies on sugarcane roots lag well behind those on other crops, in part due to the large plant stature and long crop cycle. Commercial sugarcane cultivars are hybrids from crosses mostly between Saccharum officinarum and S. spontaneum made by breeders at the beginning of the last century. These hybrids have a genomic structure composed of 80% S. officinarum, 10% S. spontaneum and 10% recombinants of these two species. S. spontaneum is included in large part for the robustness of its underground organs (root and rhizome). The S. spontaneum genes controlling these characteristics may be lost during recurrent backcrosses with S. officinarum to increase sugar content and yield. Thus, ratooning ability is one of the most desired traits. Ratooning ability comes mainly from the rhizomatousness of S. spontaneum, but this trait has been diluted during the selection process so that the stubble of hybrids does not have rhizomes sensu stricto. In this review, we revisit some basic aspects of the sugarcane root system, mainly from an ecophysiological view, and point out considerations for breeders to consider in designing the architecture of a new sugarcane cultivar that can meet the need for sustainable agricultural production.

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Abbreviations

QTLs:

Quantitative Trait Loci

GHG:

Greenhouse Gas

DMA:

Dry Matter Accumulation

SOC:

Soil Organic Carbon

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Campus de Araras-SP, Araras, Brazil

    Sizuo Matsuoka

  2. Rua Ciro Lagazzi, 01. 13603–027, Araras, SP, Brazil

    Sizuo Matsuoka

  3. Departamento de Genética, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), CP 83, CEP 13400–970, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia

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  1. Sizuo Matsuoka
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  2. Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia
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Correspondence to Sizuo Matsuoka.

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Communicated by: Paulo Arruda

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Matsuoka, S., Garcia, A.A.F. Sugarcane Underground Organs: Going Deep for Sustainable Production. Tropical Plant Biol. 4, 22–30 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-011-9076-3

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