Propagating sugarcane in vitro: An opportunity for indian sugar industry Kavita1,2,*, Lal M.2, Saxena Sangeeta1 1Department of Biotechnology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India 2UP Council of Sugarcane Research, Shahjahanpur-242001, Uttar Pradesh, India *Corresponding author: kkavita2006@gmail.com
Online published on 9 August, 2016. Abstract India is the world's second largest sugarcane producing country after Brazil and it contribute approxmatty 15% of world production. World average consumption of sugar per capita was 23.1 Kg in year 2013 while Indian consumption of sugar per capita was only 18.2 Kg. More than half of the total country's sugarcane area is covered by the state of Uttar Pradesh alone. It is also experienced that centuries old conventional technology of sugarcane development, in spite of considerable decline in its economic viability, is still prevailing throughout the state. It is therefore, the call of time to encourage the farmers to adopt the planting material developed through biotechnological approaches, which can overcome the yield and recovery problem at a faster cheaper, safer and economically beneficial way. In vitro techniques offer tremendous opportunities for developing novel varieties with disease resistance and improved potential for cane yield and sugar recovery, through somaclonal variation. A protocol for rapid in vitro micropropagation of new elite varieties of sugarcane needs to be developed so that planting material of such varieties can be produced in sufficient quantity and distributed for rapid replacement of sugarcane area occupied with old deteriorated varieties. Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research, Shahjahanpur has so far released/accepted 212 varieties of sugarcane for cultivation in UP. The tissue culture Laboratory of this organization is actively engaged in developing/improving protocols for regeneration of sugarcane varieties, clonal multiplication and cross checking its genetic fidelity. In this article, the work done so far on various aspects of in vitro culture of sugarcane has been reviewed. Top Keywords Sugarcane, somaclonal variation, micropropagation, in vitro culture. Top |