RESEARCH ARTICLE

Variability in Breeding Pool of Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.)for Yield, Quality and Resistance to Different Biotic and AbioticStress Factors

A. Anna Durai • M. N. Premachandran •

P. Govindaraj • P. Malathi • R. Viswanathan

Received: 2 October 2013 / Accepted: 4 January 2014

� Society for Sugar Research & Promotion 2014

Abstract The understanding on the available genetic

variability in the breeding pool aids the breeder to choose

better parental combinations for the desired genetic

improvement in crop plants. The variability present in the

National Hybridisation Garden (NHG) of sugarcane in

India at Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore with an

assemblage of 606 clones of sugarcane cultivars and other

elite hybrids were studied for cane yield components, juice

quality parameters and their level of resistance against red

rot. The data on smut resistance, tolerance to stalk borer

and tolerance to different abiotic stresses like drought,

salinity, water logging, low temperature, high temperature

and winter ratooning ability of these clones to be used

parental clones were collected from the available literature.

Significant leptokurtic distribution for the cane characters

and right skewed distribution for juice quality traits were

observed in this breeding pool. Correlation studies indi-

cated that selection of parents contributing to high cane

height and high number of millable canes (NMC) would

result in progeny with high single cane weight (SCW) and

cane yield because, the SCW was negatively correlated

with NMC and cane thickness. Clones with high per se

performance for important yield contributing characters

were identified which are potential parents for yield

improvement. For sucrose content, a highly heritable trait

in sugarcane, nineteen clones with high juice sucrose of

more than 20 % were found to be suitable as parents for

quality enhancement. One hundred and thirty-seven clones

were found as either resistant (R) or moderately Rto the

most virulent races of red rot pathogen by testing with

mixed inoculum of Cf 671 and Cf 94012 isolates. Screening

of the clones for pollen fertility inferred that NHG has

higher number of clones that can be used as female parent

than as male parent. The synchrony in flowering of female

and male parental clones with desirable traits of interest

and the combining ability of the clones are also discussed

in this paper. The critical consideration of the different

parameters in choosing suitable parental clones in crossing

programme will help in rapid varietal improvement for

cane and sugar yield as well as to enhance the resistance

against different biotic and abiotic stresses for increased

sugarcane productivity.

Keywords Sugarcane � Genetic variability �Hybridisation � Red rot resistance � Sucrose �Pollen fertility � Biotic and abiotic stresses

Introduction

In India, sugarcane is grown in several states representing

diverse agro-ecological conditions in both tropical and sub-

tropical regions. Regardless of pronounced emphasis on sug-

arcane research and development, improvement in

productivity is not being observed in the country in the recent

years. Development of high yielding varieties is the viable

option to enhance the sugarcane production since cultivation

of suitable variety in the particular location alone could

improve the cane yield up to 60 per cent. Even though modern

tools of breeding such as molecular breeding, genetic trans-

formation, etc. are available now, the classical means of crop

improvement involving hybridisation and selection still has

significant role in sugarcane varietal development pro-

grammes. During the initial periods of sugarcane varietal

development programme in India, the sugarcane hybrid clones

A. Anna Durai (&) � M. N. Premachandran � P. Govindaraj �P. Malathi � R. Viswanathan

Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore 641 007, India

e-mail: ayyadu@gmail.com

123

Sugar Tech

DOI 10.1007/s12355-014-0301-x

identified at Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) were supplied

and tested at different locations and some of them became

popular varieties of respective locations. Considering varied

agro climatic conditions of the country, development of

location specific varieties was emphasised after the estab-

lishment of All India Coordinated Research Project on Sug-

arcane (AICRP-S). Since sugarcane flowers profusely and sets

seeds satisfactorily at Coimbatore, a centralised facility for

creating the required variation, the National Hybridization

Garden (NHG) was established at SBI, Coimbatore for the

participating centres of fluff supply programme to make

crosses of their choice. Further seedling selection and clonal

evaluation is being carried out at the AICRP (S) centres for the

development of suitable location specific varieties.

The important characters expected to be improved in sug-

arcane are sucrose content, cane yield and resistance/tolerance

to different biotic stresses such as red rot, smut, wilt, borers

etc., and biotic stresses such as drought, salinity, water log-

ging, winter ratoonability, etc. The NHG has the parental

clones from all the centres which are involved in sugarcane

variety development programmes in India besides few foreign

clones. The clones in the garden serve as source of genes for

different economic traits of sugarcane. The success of any

breeding programme depends largely on the choice of parental

genotypes, heritability of the traits, evaluation period and

statistical model used (Gazaffi et al. 2010). Parents are often

selected in sugarcane based on performance of their seedlings

advanced till the final stage of clonal selection (Heinz and Tew

1987). Screening of the available parents for red rot resistance

against the different pathogen isolates followed by a recom-

bination breeding by combining red rot resistance and high

sucrose content could lead to identification of successful

commercial varieties. The appropriate planning of crosses

increases the probability of developing superior varieties

because it maximise the use of favourable genes besides

reducing the costs of breeding programme. Hence, knowledge

on genetic variability and heritability of the traits and ability of

particular parental clone in transmitting the desired trait(s) to

its progeny are important. The information on combining

ability of the parental clones in order to give better progenies is

also essential to the right choice of parents for hybridisation.

Further, it was emphasised to have comprehensive data about

the clones available at NHG especially on resistance to biotic

and abiotic stresses (Hapase 2012). In order to facilitate the

sugarcane breeders to effectively utilize the clones, present

work was carried out to study the available genetic variation in

the national breeding gene pool of sugarcane and to identify

the source of genes for the different economic traits.

Materials and Methods

Six hundred and six sugarcane clones representing five

different agro-climatic regions and 13 major states of

sugarcane cultivation in India along with 20 foreign

hybrids maintained to be used as parental clones at NHG at

SBI, Coimbatore were used in the present study (Table 1).

All 606 clones were planted during the last week of

December 2010 at SBI, Coimbatore in augmented design I

replicating the four standards viz., Co 86032, CoC 671 and

Co 94008 and Co 775 for six times each. Each clone was

planted in a plot size of single row with 6 m length. The

recommended agronomical practices were followed to

have a healthy crop. Data on cane yield components like

cane height (PHT), cane diameter (CTH), number of mil-

lable canes per plot (NMC) and single cane weight (SCW)

were taken at 360 days. Cane yield per plot was estimated

as a product of its two prime factors viz., NMC and SCW.

Cane juice at the time of harvest was extracted using power

operated crusher and was clarified using lead acetate. The

Table 1 The contribution of parental clones in NHG by different sugarcane breeding locations

Zone Breeding locationa Number of

parental

clones

Peninsular Zone Coimbatore (188), Powerkheda (10), Padegaon (13), Navsari (6),

Sirugamani(3), Sankeshwar (6), Thiruvalla (11), Perumalapalli

(1), Rudrur (12)

250

East Coast Zone Anakapalle (33), Cuddalore (23), Vuyyuru

(11)

67

North West Zone Pantnagar (21), Shahjahanpur (61), Uchani(23), Jalandhar (28),

Ludhiana (2), Lucknow (61)

196

North Central and North eastern Zone Pusa (27), Seorahi (12), Buralikson (18), 57

Foreign clones 20

Others 16

Total 606

a Values in parentheses indicate the number of parents from the particular location

Sugar Tech

123

juice quality parameters viz., juice Brix %, juice sucrose %,

commercial cane sugar (CCS) % and purity % were

worked out as per Chen and Chou (1993). The data col-

lected were statistically analysed as per procedures given

by Panse and Sukhatme (1978).

The parental clones and the standards were tested for their

level of resistance against the mixed inoculums of Cf 671 and

Cf 94012 isolates of red rot pathogen Colletotrichum falca-

tum by controlled condition testing method. The reactions of

the parental clones to C. falcatum were classified as resistant

(R), moderately resistant (MR), moderately susceptible

(MS), susceptible (S) and highly susceptible (HS) as per the

method given by Viswanathan (2010).

During the time of peak blooming, anthers from matured

but unopened spikelets were collected from each flowering

clone and were squashed in 1 % aceto-carmine with

glycerine. The pollen fertility was determined on the basis

of stainability of pollen grains. The flowering clones were

classified to be used as exclusively female (less than 20 %

pollen fertility), both as female and male (20–60 %), and as

exclusively male (more than 60 % pollen fertility).

Information with respect to other agronomically impor-

tant traits like resistance to smut, tolerance to stalk borer,

drought, salinity, water logging, low and high temperature

and winter ratoonability of the clones in NHG was collated

from the available literature (Anonymous 1980–2010; He-

maprabha and Pazhany 2012; Nair 2012). Based on the

period of flowering and pollen fertility, the parental clones

with traits of interest available were classified as female and

male parents for utilization.

Results and Discussion

Variability in the Parental Clones

The information on the nature and magnitude of variability

present in the available genetic resources is of prime

importance to initiate any effective crop improvement

programme. The composition of clones from different

agro-climatic regions of sugarcane cultivation depicted the

variation present in this breeding pool of sugarcane used in

this study. In a crop like sugarcane with a complex genome

constitution and a high level of heterozygosity, proper

exploitation of the variability for evolving superior cultivar

is a complicated process. However, evaluation of exploit-

able variability in the parental gene pool can assist in

judicious selection of parental combinations to generate the

desired recombinants that can stimulate the progress in

sugarcane breeding. The variation observed for yield

component and sugar content traits in the parental clones in

NHG are presented in Table 2.

Among the characters studied, the highest co-efficient of

variation was observed for NMC and was closely followed

by SCW. While moderate level of variation was observed

for PHT, CTH, sucrose % and CCS % and Brix. Ahmed

and Obeid (2012) recorded the maximum values of heri-

tability along with high genetic advance (%) for NMC,

PHT and CTH. These results suggested that straight

selection of parents for SCW and NMC can be made as

these two characters are major contributors for cane yield.

Hemaprabha et al. (2003) reported high heritability for

juice quality traits through parent progeny regression while

Ram (2005) observed high genotypic co-efficient of vari-

ation, heritability and genetic advance for these traits

indicating reliability of these sucrose traits for selecting the

parents for improving sugar yield in sugarcane.

The frequency distribution of genotypes for cane and

quality characters is depicted graphically in Fig. 1. Left

skewed distribution was observed for juice quality char-

acters and right skewed distribution for cane characters

though the value was non-significant for PHT. The value of

skewness was statistically significant for almost all the

traits studied. Significant leptokurtic distribution observed

for Brix, CCS % and sucrose % indicated that most values

are concentrated on the right of mean. Sandhu et al. (2012)

reported the similar trend for brix content in the open

pollinated progenies studied.This indicated the presence of

superior genotypes for these traits in the studied gene pool.

As depicted in Fig. 1, the non-significant skewness and

kurtosis was observed for plant height with low percentage

of extreme genotypes.

Table 2 Descriptive statistics for cane and juice quality characters in sugarcane breeding pool

Characters Mean Maximum Median Co-efficient of variation Skewness Kurtosis

Cane height (cm) 200.7 330.0 200.0 21.22 0.07 -0.32

Cane weight (kg) 1.10 3.33 1.00 40.00 0.99* 1.98*

Cane diameter (cm) 2.62 4.50 2.50 17.94 0.64* 1.07*

NMC/20ft row 43.65 135.00 43.00 42.25 0.87* 2.44*

Brix % 18.69 23.23 18.78 09.47 -0.51* 0.70*

Sucrose % 16.40 21.49 16.65 13.17 -0.56* 0.62*

CCS % 11.31 15.36 11.51 15.03 -0.58* 0.65*

Sugar Tech

123

Selection of parents is often made based on per se per-

formance of the clones and the visible characters (pheno-

typic expression) of interest. In sugarcane, most of the

agronomic characters are quantitatively inherited and are

highly influenced by the environment. Selection for high

cane yield may lead to low sucrose content as the vegeta-

tive growth may not be favourable for high sucrose accu-

mulation. The correlation coefficient analysis between the

characters provides some leads on selecting the best parent.

The data on eight major characters along with cane yield

per plot were analysed for Pearson correlation co-efficient

(Table 3). The cane characters like NMC, PHT, CTH and

SCW had high positive correlation with cane yield whereas

the quality characters were not correlated with cane yield.

Significant positive correlation was observed among the

cane yield and all its component traits, whereas significant

negative correlation was obtained between NMC and cane

thickness. Kadian et al. (2006) reported that yield was

significantly correlated with SCW, NMC, and PHT. Tyagi

and Lal (2007) reported highest direct effect of plant vol-

ume, number of millable stalks, stalk height and weight of

stalk on sugarcane yield. However, in the present study,

NMC was found to be negatively correlated with CTH,

SCW, sucrose %, CCS % and purity % though the corre-

lation was non-significant with SCW and purity. Negative

correlation was observed between cane yield and Brix %

and the cane yield did not show any significant association

with sugar yield components. However purity which is an

indication of maturity of the cane showed positive corre-

lation with yield. From these results, it was inferred that

selection of taller stalks will result in thicker and heavier

canes which in turn increase the cane yield in sugarcane.

Fig. 1 Frequency distribution of genotypes for cane and juice quality characters

Table 3 Correlation coefficient among the cane characters and sucrose traits in NHG parental clones

PHT CTH SCW Brix % Sucrose % CCS % Purity % Cane yield

NMC 0.177** -0.098* -0.037NS -0.177** -0.146** -0.135** -0.076 0.639**

PHT 0.477** 0.6666** 0.164 0.200** 0.208** 0.211** 0.579**

CTH 0.622** 0.171** 0.200** 0.207** 0.204** 0.374**

SCW 0.171** 0.198** 0.204** 0.223** 0.687**

Brix % 0.9976** 0.960** 0.774** -0.013NS

Sucrose % 0.998** 0.889** 0.028NS

CCS % 0.915** 0.040NS

Purity % 0.091*

NS not significant

*Significant at 5 % level and ** significant at 1 per cent level

Sugar Tech

123

Source of Genes for Different Economic Traits

Available in NHG

The selection of suitable parents for the hybridization that

produce elite progenies is the key to the success of the

sugarcane breeding programme. The parental analysis of

Co canes developed since 1912 indicated that Co 419 was

the most used parental clone during 1930–1960 because

of its commercial superiority due to high sugar content

coupled with high cane yield (Rao 1989). The pedigree

analysis of ‘Co canes’ evolved at SBI, Coimbatore during

the last 40 years (1970–2010) revealed that the clones Co

775, Co 419, Co 6806, Co 740, CoC 671 Co 7201, Co

62714, Co 7714, CoT 8201, BO 91, Co 86011, Co 8371,

Co 88013, MS 68/47, Co 86002, CoC 90063 and CoLk

8102 were the most successful parents in evolving ‘Co

canes’. These parental clones contributed to more

selectable genetic variability through their gametes which

produced higher proportion of agronomically superior off-

springs (Ravinderkumar et al. 2012). Among them Co

86011 and Co 85002 were giving better progenies with

high sugar content and cane yield. BO 91, CoT 8201 Co

85002 and Co 86011 were used as a source of red rot

resistance. Co 7201 was used as female parent for last

three decades due its juice quality and red rot resistance

features. Co 775 was a preferred male parent because of

its regular flowering and high pollen yield. CoC 671 was

used as the most preferred parent giving rise to high sugar

progeny. Co 62198 is also one of the highly preferred

male parent since it transmits all the economic characters

to its progeny (Appunu and Premachandran 2012).

Information about the superior parental clones and their

combining ability identified for different economic traits

and its relevance to the objectives of sugarcane breeding

programme are discussed below.

Cane Characters

Seven clones were found to have more than 100 NMC per

plot. They are CoJ 99192, CoSe 95422, ISH 135, ISH 147,

BO 91, ISH 176 and ISH 150. Around 200 parental clones

were observed to produce more than 70 NMC. Fourteen

clones viz., Co 98008, CoJ 72, Co 85019, 90A 272, 93 V

297, Co 8353, 97R 383, 97 R 401, CoM 0265, Co 1307, Ms

68/47 Co 8371, ISH 111 and 93 A 53 were found to have

SCW of more than 2.5 kg and 99 clones were found to be

with more than 1.5 kg of SCW. ISH 1 and ISH 28 for stalk

yield and its components (Ram and Hemaprabha 2000) and

Co 8371, Co 94008, Co 775, Co 98010, Co 86032 and CoC

671 for NMC, CTH and PHT (Alarmelu et al. 2010a) were

reported to be good general combiners while Co 740 9 Co

94008 and Co 86002 9 Co 99006 were superior specific

combiners for yield parameters.

Juice Quality Parameters

Nineteen clones viz, LG 95037, C 79113, CoJ 85, C 81615,

93 A 145, Co 93020, CoH 7801, CoJ 72, LG 94164, LG

95053, Co 87023, Co 91019, Co 98007, ISH 11, CoH 76,

Co 94012, CoSnk 03707, Co 89003, CoLk 97050 recorded

high sucrose content of more than 20 % and 137 clones

were with 18–20 % sucrose at 12th month. A large pro-

portion of seedling population recorded high brix values

when the clones viz., CoC 671, Co 85002, Co 86002, PR

1068 and PR 1095 were used as female parents (Shanthi

et al. 2005). Similarly Co 99006 as male parent and CoC

671 as female parent were identified as good combiners for

brix, the important indicator of sucrose content. Others

parents like Co 740, Co 93020 and Co 86032 were also

reported to have high general combing ability effects for

brix (Alarmelu et al. 2010a) whereas interspecific hybrids

Table 4 Differential reaction of the parental clones to mixed inoculums of Cf 671 and Cf 94012 isolates of red rot pathogen Colletotrichum

falcatum

Zone Total no. HS S MS MR R

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Peninsular Zone 250 51 20.40 132 52.80 27 10.80 40 16.00 – –

East Coast Zone 067 13 19.40 33 49.25 13 19.40 06 8.96 02 2.99

North West Zone 196 31 15.82 86 43.88 25 12.76 50 25.51 04 2.04

North Central and North East Zone 057 04 7.02 17 29.82 06 10.53 29 50.88 01 1.75

Foreign clones 020 04 20.00 12 60.00 03 15.00 01 5.00 – –

Others 016 02 12.50 07 43.75 03 18.75 04 25.00 – –

Total 606 105 17.33 287 47.36 77 12.71 130 21.45 7 1.16

HS highly susceptible, S susceptible, MS moderately susceptible, MR moderately resistant, R resistant

Sugar Tech

123

Ta

ble

5F

low

erin

gp

atte

rno

fim

po

rtan

td

on

ors

for

tole

ran

ceto

bio

tic

and

abio

tic

stre

sses

Wee

ko

ffl

ow

erin

gA

sfe

mal

ep

aren

tA

sfe

mal

eo

rm

ale

par

ent

As

mal

ep

aren

t

41

st(8

thto

14

th

Oct

ob

er)

Co

91

01

9bc,

Co

Lk

81

02

d,

Co

87

27

1a,

Co

87

27

2a

UP

95

29

e–

42

nd

(15

thto

21

st

Oct

ob

er)

LG

01

01

4a,

UP

95

30

ae,

Co

S9

62

68

h,

Co

62

19

8b,

BO

97

aC

o0

24

0a,

UP

22

a,

BO

89

a,

ISH

28

7a,

LG

00

11

6a

Co

S8

82

16

a,

BO

13

0ag,

HR

83

-65

a,

Co

P9

30

1a,

Co

Se

92

42

3a,

Co

89

02

9a,

Co

11

58

c

43

rd(2

2n

dto

28

th

Oct

ob

er)

UP

39

a,

Co

P0

21

81

a,

CP

61

-23

a,

Co

J8

41

91

a,

Co

S9

12

69

a,

Co

87

27

3a,

BO

10

8a,

BO

10

9a,

Co

90

01

8b,

Co

83

71

bce,

Co

95

02

1bcd,

Co

H1

4a

BO

11

0e,

Co

31

2bc,

LG

04

60

2a,

LG

05

82

8a,

BO

91

ae,

Co

Pan

t9

02

23

a,

Co

83

47

a,

Co

86

00

2b,

UP

5a,

BO

96

a

Co

06

03

7a,

Q6

5g,

Co

H1

3a,

Co

11

48

bcf ,

ISH

17

6a,

Co

S9

32

78

aB

O1

28

a

44

th(2

9th

Oct

ob

er

to4

thN

ov

emb

er)

ISH

17

5de,

Co

87

02

3c,

79

21

8b,

Co

Se

95

42

7a,

ISH

10

0c,

Co

06

03

6g,

Co

85

00

2bc,

Co

Sn

k0

51

03

abd,

Co

H1

10

b,

Co

91

00

2b,

Co

Lk

94

18

4a,

Co

S9

84

27

a,

Co

Pan

t9

02

24

a,

Co

82

08

cd,

Co

87

26

3ac,

Co

S9

02

69

a,

Co

61

7c,

LG

91

1a

Co

S9

72

64

ae,

Co

S0

72

33

a,

Co

H3

5a,

Co

Sn

k

03

04

4a,

Co

Se

95

43

6a,

Co

92

01

3d,

Co

45

3bc

BO

47

a,

Co

89

00

3c,

Co

S1

09

g,

Co

Lk

96

18

a,

Co

Pan

t9

42

13

a,

Co

92

00

8b,

Co

S9

62

60

a,

Co

S

94

27

0ag

45

th(5

thto

11

th

No

vem

ber

)

Co

97

6b,

BO

14

6a,

Co

Pan

t8

82

20

a,

NB

94

-54

5a,

Co

M

68

06

a,

LG

01

03

0a,

C8

16

15

a,

Co

85

24

6b,

Co

83

16

b,

Co

88

02

8c,

LG

04

60

5a,

Co

A9

30

82

a,

LG

05

81

7a

Co

83

40

b,

Co

S9

12

30

a,

BO

99

e,

Co

H1

28

aC

o6

21

74

b,

Co

97

01

5ad,

Co

N8

51

34

a,

Co

Se

95

42

2a,

Co

83

53

ab,

Co

Se

95

42

3a

46

th(1

2th

to1

8th

No

vem

ber

)

Q6

3f ,

Co

N0

70

72

a,

LG

05

81

0a,

Co

92

00

6b,

Co

05

01

1a,

Co

S0

72

31

a,

Co

83

38

b,

ISH

11

1a,

Co

68

06

bcde,

Co

74

0c,

Co

91

01

8c,

Co

06

03

5g,

Co

92

00

2bc,

Co

99

00

6e,

Co

P

06

43

6a,

Co

86

01

0bc,

Co

92

02

0b

ISH

11

0a,

Co

H1

06

a,

Co

02

35

a,

Co

85

03

6b,

Co

86

01

1cd,

Co

Pan

t9

22

26

aC

o8

33

9bf ,

Co

86

24

9bc,

ISH

12

a,

Co

94

00

8bcd

47

th(1

9th

to2

5th

No

vem

ber

)

Co

72

19

cd,

ISH

26

7a,

Co

98

00

6b,

Co

Pan

t9

82

24

a,

Co

C

90

06

3c,

Co

94

01

2bdi ,

MS

68

/47

a,

S4

39

3/0

3a,

Co

J8

0a,

Co

86

03

2cd,

Co

63

04

c,

Co

77

04

bc,

Co

82

09

c

ISH

13

9a

Co

88

01

3b,

Co

35

6b,

Co

A8

80

81

a

48

th(2

6th

No

vem

ber

to

2n

dD

ecem

ber

)

Co

80

13

b,

Co

S9

52

70

a,

Co

Sn

k0

36

32

c,

BO

14

7a,

Co

S

95

25

5a,

Co

93

00

3b,

LG

99

00

1a,

Co

S8

43

2a,

Co

89

03

6b,

Co

A9

20

82

a,

ISH

13

5cde,

Co

A9

20

81

a

ISH

10

1a,

Co

20

00

-10

c,

Co

Or0

55

46

aIS

H2

28

a,

Co

13

07

b,

UP

49

a,

Co

06

03

2a,

Co

86

25

0c,

Co

V9

21

02

c

aR

edro

tre

sist

ant

bS

mu

tre

sist

ant

cD

rou

gh

tto

lera

nt

dS

alin

ity

tole

ran

te

Wat

erlo

gg

ing

tole

ran

tf

Co

ldto

lera

nt

gW

inte

rra

too

nin

gab

ilit

yh

Sta

lkb

ore

rto

lera

nt

iH

igh

tem

per

atu

reto

lera

nt

Sugar Tech

123

like ISH 45, ISH 7, ISH 31 and ISH 4 were good combiners

for juice quality traits (Ram and Hemaprabha 2000). The

best specific combiners for brix % were Co 740 9 Co 775,

Co 740 9 Co 99006, Co 93020 9 Co 94008, CoC

671 9 Co 775 and Co 98010 9 Co 9006 (Alarmelu et al.

2010a).

Red Rot Resistance

Red rot, the major disease affecting the crop in the country

is a potential threat to sugarcane production. At present, no

red rot susceptible varieties are recommended for release in

the country through the AICRP (S). This disease has been

largely managed through deployment of R varieties. From

the previous studies, it was observed that when both par-

ents were resistant, a very high proportion of R progenies

were obtained (Alarmelu et al. 2010b). When one of the

parents was S, a fairly good number of progenies were R

and when both the parents are S, the proportion of R

progenies was less. Hence, to have high level of resistance

in the progenies, it is essential to identify and use R par-

ents. Screening of 606 parental clones for red rot resistance

revealed that 64.69 % were found as HS or S, 12.71 %

were MS and 22.61 % were R and MR. It indicated that

majority of the parental clones in NHG were S to the

disease. Among the different parental groups, North Cen-

tral Zone followed by North West Zone clones showed a

higher proportion for red rot resistance while clones from

Peninsular and East Coast zones were mostly S (Table 4).

A study using AFLP markers by Selvi et al. (2006)

revealed that Indian varieties grown under the subtropical

belt facing extreme climatic conditions retained more of

Saccharum spontaneum alleles than the tropical cultivars.

Natarajan et al. (2001) found that an increase in S. spon-

taneum chromosome in the progenies increases the hori-

zontal resistance component against red rot. Relatively

higher amount of S. spontaneum genome in the sub-tropical

varieties may have contributed to higher level of resistance

in subtropical clones, but the high selection pressure for red

rot resistance in subtropical breeding programme compared

to that in tropical programme also may be involved.Among

the 606 clones evaluated, only seven viz., CoA 92081, CoA

88021, CoS 06247, CoS 07231 and CoS 282, CoSe 96234

and LG 9917 were found as R and 130 clones as MR which

can be exploited for breeding for resistance to red rot.

Involving these R parents along with general combiners for

red rot resistance like Co 7201 (Alarmelu et al. 2010b), Co

8347, ISH 21 and Co 86011 (Ram et al. 2005a) and stable

R clones like Co 8347, Co 97017, CoLk 8102 and BO 91

(Ram and Sahi 2001) and the specific combiners like Co

7201 9 Co 86011, Co 8347 9 Co 1148, Co 89009 9 Co

86011 and ISH 21 9 Co 1148 (Ram et al. 2005a) may

result in more red rot R progenies. Many recent

introgressive hybrids from interspecific and intergeneric

crosses involving related wild species of sugarcane were

found to be new sources of red rot resistance.

Other Stresses

Sources of parental genotypes identified for important

biotic and abiotic stresses affecting sugarcane productivity

are given in Table 5. Crosses such as CoPant 84212 9 Co

89003, CoH 110 9 Co 8213 and Co 8353 9 Co 1148

produced higher number of selections for winter ratooning

ability whereas selection percentage was higher for spring

harvested seedlings in the crosses like CoS 8436 9 Co

89003, CoH 110 9 Co 1148, CoS 94257 9 CoT 8201, Co

8353 9 Co 62198, Co 8371 9 CoT 8201, Co 8353 9 Co

88021 and Co 86002 9 Co 775. It was further noted that

none of tropical 9 tropical crosses gave higher selections

in winter ratooned seedlings (Ram et al. 2005b). So it is

evident from these results that in order to breed for higher

winter ratooning ability, one of the parents must be of

subtropical origin. The derivatives of Co 6304, Co 7201,

CoC 671, Co 740, Co 775 and Co 6806 were able to

withstand drought situations (Hemaprabha et al.2006).

Pollen Fertility of Parental Clones

The percentage of pollen fertility in a parental clone is the

deciding factor for its use as a male or female parent.

Assessing the pollen fertility of 486 parental clones

revealed that the NHG has higher number of female parents

than the male parents (Fig. 2). Nair et al. (1985) reported

highly consistent pattern of pollen fertility over years in the

sugarcane germplasm and significant positive association

of this trait with open anther percentage, seed weight and

seed germination ability. It leads to high demand for the

few pollen parents available with high fertility during the

peak crossing season and also result in utilization of rela-

tively less number of males in hybridisation programmes.

152

103112

101

18

0

50

100

150

200

< 20 % 20-40 % 40-60 % 60-80 % > 80 %

Nu

mb

er o

f cl

on

es

Range of pollen fertility

Fig. 2 Classification of parental clones in NHG based on pollen

fertility

Sugar Tech

123

So in NHG it was necessary to augment with additional

high pollen fertility clones to cater the need of the more

good male parents.

Choice of appropriate parental combination mainly

decides the efficiency of sugarcane breeding programme.

There is no point in making crosses between the parents

just for the reason that there is synchronisation in flowering

among them. The decision such as which clone should be

chosen as female and male parents form the foundation of

any breeding programme as mentioned by Hogarth and

Skinner (1987). The female and male parental clones in

NHG for traits of breeders’ interest other than cane yield

and sucrose content that bloom during the different weeks

of flowering period are given in Table 5.

Effective utilisation of these potential parental clones

identified as sources for yield, sucrose and resistance to

different biotic and abiotic stresses could lead to evolving

of superior varieties suitable for different agro-climatic

zones of sugarcane cultivation in India.

Conclusion

Sugarcane breeders from all over India utilise the sugar-

cane hybrid clones from all sugarcane breeding centres in

the country for hybridisation that are housed in NHG in

order to generate the desired genetic variability. The

parental clones in NHG serve as a source for incorporating

genes for different economically important traits. Choice of

the proper parents for hybridisation is a vital part of sug-

arcane breeding programme. The correct choice of the

parents to be used in crossing will depend on the objectives

of the breeding programme. The main criteria in parental

selection in NHG are yield components, sucrose content,

response of the clones to various biotic and abiotic stresses

and their flowering behaviour. Nearly 500 elite clones have

been developed in the last 30 years by different partici-

pating centres from the crosses made at the NHG and many

of them were released for cultivation in different states.

Varieties like CoA 7601, CoB 94164, CoC 671, CoH 92,

CoH 119, CoH 128, CoJ 64, CoJ 85, CoM 0265, CoPant

84212, CoS 767, CoS 8432, CoS 8436, CoS 88230, CoS

95255, CoS 97264, CoSe 95423, CoSe 92423 and others

developed through NHG and the Fluff Supply Programme

have been responsible for improving productivity in dif-

ferent states. The varieties bred through NHG and at SBI

are occupying more than 95 per cent of the area under

sugarcane cultivation in India. The efficiency of sugarcane

breeding programme in the country can be improved by the

right choice of parents used in crosses and the information

generated through this study would help in such decisions

to give an impetus to the decentralised sugarcane breeding

programme.

Acknowledgments The authors are thankful to Dr. N. Vijayan Nair,

Director Sugarcane Breeding Institute for necessary facilities and Dr.

G. Hemaprabha, Head, Breeding Section, Sugarcane Breeding Insti-

tute, Coimbatore for the logistic support and suggestions given during

the course of the present study.

References

Ahmed, A.O., and A. Obeid. 2012. Investigation on variability, broad

sense heritability and genetic advance in sugarcane (Saccharum

spp). International Journal of Agricultural Science 2(9): 839–844.

Appunu, C., and M.N. Premachandran. 2012. Choice of parental

clones in sugarcane breeding programme at Coimbatore in

evolving Co canes—A retrospection. In Proceedings of the

international symposium on new paradigms in sugarcane

research, eds. R. Viswanathan, G. Hemaprabha, A. Bhaskaran,

K.Mohanraj, V. Jayakumar, T. Ramasubramanian and N.V. Nair,

11–12. Coimbatore: Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

Alarmelu, S., G. Hemaprabha, R. Nagarajan, and R.M. Shanthi.

2010a. Combining ability for yield and quality in sugarcane.

Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding 1(4): 742–746.

Alarmelu, S., R. Nagarajan, R.M. Shanthi, D. Mohanraj, and P.

Padmanabhan. 2010b. A study on genetics of red rot resistance in

sugarcane. Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding 1(4): 656–659.

Anonymous. 1980–2010. Annual reports, Sugarcane Breeding Insti-

tute, Coimbatore, India.

Chen, J.C.P., and C.C. Chou. 1993. Cane sugar hand book, 12th ed.

New York: Wiley.

Gazaffi, R., K.M. Oliveira, A.P. Souza, and A.A.F. Garia. 2010. The

importance of the germplasm in developing agro-energetic

profile sugarcane cultivars. In Sugar cane bioethanol: R&D for

productivity and sustainability, ed. L.A.B. Cortez, 333–343. Sao

Paulo: Blucher. ISBN: 978821205302.

Hapase, R.S. 2012. Breeding strategies for improving productivity

and diseases resistance. In Sugarcane breeders and pathologist

meet, ed. N.V. Nair, R. Viswanathan, P. Govindaraj, and K.

Mohanraj, 86–87. Sugarcane Breeding Institute: Coimbatore.

ISBN 978-81-904359-6-3.

Heinz, D.J., and T.I. Tew. 1987. Hybridisation procedure. In

Sugarcane improvement through breeding, ed. D.J. Heinz.

Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Hemaprabha, G., U.S. Natarajan, and N. Balasundaram. 2003.

Breeding behaviour for juice quality through selfing and progeny

evaluation in hybrid clones and inbred derivatives of sugarcane

(Saccharum sp.). Sugar Tech 5(3): 177–180.

Hemaprabha, G., R. Nagarajan, S. Alarmelu, and U.S. Natarajan.

2006. Parental potential of sugarcane clones for drought

resistance breeding. Sugar Tech 8: 59–62.

Hemaprabha G., T.S. Sarath, S.Alarmelu, A. S. Pazhany, R.M.Shan-

thi, and C. Appunu. 2012. An assessment of high temperature

tolerance potential of elite genotypes of sugarcane (Saccharum

spp.) evaluated in Peninsular Zone of India. In Proceedings of

the international symposium on new paradigms in sugarcane

research, eds. R. Viswanathan, G. Hemaprabha, A. Bhaskaran,

K. Mohanraj, V. Jayakumar, T. Ramasubramanian and N.V.

Nair, 125–126. Coimbatore: Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

Hogarth, D.M., and J.C. Skinner. 1987. Computerisation of parental

selection. Copersucar international sugarcane breeding workshop,

87–101. Piracicaba-S.P. Brasil: Copersucar Technology Centre.

Kadian, S.P., R. Pal, and Y.S. Lather. 2006. Correlation and path

efficient analysis in sugarcane. Indian Journal of Agricultural

Research 40(2): 135–138.

Nair, N.V., N. Balasundaram, and K.G. Somarajan. 1985. Flowering

behaviour of Indian commercial hybrids of sugarcane under

Sugar Tech

123

Cannanore conditions. The Indian Sugar Crops Journal 11(1–4):

49–51.

Nair, N.V. 2012. Sugarcane genetic resources—Status, potential and

role in sugarcane improvement. Journal of Sugarcane Research

2(2): 1–8.

Natarajan, U.S., N. Balasundaram, T.C. Ramana Rao, P. Padmanab-

han, D. Mohanraj, S. Karthikeyan, and S. Damodaran. 2001.

Role of Saccharum spontaneum in imparting stable resistance

against red rot. Sugar Cane International 27: 17–20.

Panse, V.G., and P.V. Sukhatme. 1978. Statistical methods for

agricultural workers, 359. ICAR: New Delhi.

Ram, B. 2005. Estimation of genetic parameters in different

environments and their implications in sugarcane breeding.

Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources 65(3): 219–220.

Ram, B., and G. Hemaprabha. 2000. Combining ability and heterosis

for cane yield and juice quality traits in progenies of sugarcane

clones involving Saccharum robustum. Sugar Cane Interna-

tional 2: 10–15.

Ram, B., and B.K. Sahi. 2001. Sources of resistance against red

pathogen (Colletotrichum falcatum Went) in sugarcane. Plant

Disease Research 16: 251–255.

Ram, B., N. Singh, and B.K. Sahi. 2005a. Combining ability and

heterosis for disease index of red rot in sugarcane (Sacchrum

officinarum L.). Indian Journal Genetics and Plant Breeding 65:

112–114.

Ram, B., B.K. Sahi, G. Hemaprabha, and P. Kumar. 2005b. Effect of

ratooning during winter and spring on selection in sugarcane

seedlings. Indian Journal of Sugarcane Technology 20(1&2):

52–56.

Rao, J.T. 1989. Sugarcane Origin, Taxonomy, Breeding and Varie-

ties. In Sugarcane varietal improvement. eds. K.M. Naidu, T.V.

Sreenivasan, and M.N. Premachandran, 83–113. Coimbatore:

Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

Ravinder Kumar, K. Mohanraj, A. Anna Durai, and M.N. Prema-

chandran. 2012. Pedigree analysis of sugarcane parent breeding

pool used in evolving ‘Co’ varieties in India. Indian Journal of

Genetics and Plant Breeding 72(1): 61–71.

Shanthi, R.M., S. Alarmelu, and R. Balakrishnan. 2005. Role of

female parents in the inheritance of brix in early selection stages

of sugarcane. Sugar Tech 7: 39–43.

Sandhu, S.K., K.S. Thind, and P. Singh. 2012. Variability trends for

brix content in general cross combinations of sugarcane (Sac-

charum spp. Complex). World Journal of Agricultural Sciences

8(1): 113–117.

Selvi, A., N.V. Nair, J.L. Noyer, N.K. Singh, N. Balasundaram, K.C.

Bansal, K.R. Koundal, and T. Mahapatra. 2006. AFLP analysis

of the phenetic organisation and genetic diversity in sugarcane

complex Saccharum and Erianthus. Genetic Resources and Crop

Evolution 53: 1221–1231.

Tyagi, A.P., and P. Lal. 2007. Correlation and path co-efficient

analysis in sugarcane. The South Pacific Journal of Natural

Science 1: 1–10.

Viswanathan, R. 2010. Plant diseases: red rot of sugarcane, 306.

New Delhi: Anmol Publishers.

Sugar Tech

123