Biotechnology for the improvement of sugar cane

Introduction

In Colombia, as in all sugarcane genetic improvement programs around the world, this process is carried out in a conventional or classical way, through the selection of phenotypic characters of agronomic interest for the crop. While it is true that this strategy has produced invaluable results for Colombia's sugar cane industry—more than 90% of the area cultivated for sugar and alcohol production in the Cauca River valley is planted with Cenicaña Colombia, CC varieties—the crop production cycle (13 months) means that this improvement process can take between 10 and 12 years. Additionally, problems such as poor flowering in the environmental conditions of the Cauca River valley make it difficult to carry out crossings. In this sense, with the objective of speeding up the process of genetic improvement of sugarcane and expanding the range of selected favorable characteristics, Cenicaña, like its peers in other countries, has incorporated biotechnology into the improvement scheme and selection of CC varieties.

Among the key biotechnological tools to achieve greater efficiency in the classical genetic improvement process, the use of molecular markers for germplasm genotyping and genetic transformation stands out. Molecular markers are regions of the genome (DNA sequences) that are often used to track the inheritance (segregation) of a particular position. To date, there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the use of these markers helps accelerate genetic improvement processes (Foiada et al., 2015; Jiang et al., 2012; Steele et al., 2006). In the case of sugarcane, whose genome is highly complex, recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies (second and third generation sequencing), which favor the identification of SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) markers, nucleotide), which are abundant in the sugarcane genome (Davey et al., 2011), suggest high probabilities of success. Additionally, the development of efficient genetic transformation methodologies makes it possible to introduce individual characters with the capacity to positively impact the agronomic development of the crop, which also makes it possible to overcome the obstacle represented by the poor flowering of improved sugarcane varieties.