Biotechnological Approaches to Improve Sugarcane Quality and Quantum Under Environmental Stresses

Sugarcane is considered as an important industrial crop to produce sugar, and nearly 80 of sugar production worldwide is produced from this plant. Sugarcane is a C4 plant that has a higher photosynthetic potential. Abiotic and biotic stresses have a diverse impact on the growth and productivity of sugarcane. Understanding the biochemical and physiological mechanism of these stresses is one of the most important aspects to improve the variety of plants that can meet better quality and quantum. Progress in the development of new sugarcane cultivars by conventional breeding has been hindered by its complex polyploid-aneuploid genome leading to a long breeding period. These types of constraints offer an opportunity to generate new sugarcane cultivars through biotechnological approaches. The new variety of sugarcane with desirable traits, such as drought tolerant and virus resistance, have been attempted to increase the yield of the plant. The inducing accumulation of compatible solutes such as sugar and betaine help sugarcane to adapt and survive in water limited environment. Biotic stress causes a significant loss in sugarcane growth and yield. Pathogen-derived resistance (PDR) and RNA interference (RNAi) technologies have been applied to engineered sugarcane cultivars having resistance to the sugarcane mosaic virus. In addition, genetic engineering of sucrose metabolism is also an important means to control carbon flux through the enzyme sucrose-phosphate synthase, which is responsible for the synthesis of sucrose. Here, we summarize recent developments in the biotechnological approaches to improve sugarcane yield by developing stress tolerance efficiency, increased yield, and virus resistance, including potential and challenges of genome editing technological applications.