Location: Sugarcane Field Station
2022 Annual Report
Objectives
1. Develop sugarcane breeding populations with high quality seed for use in Florida and Louisiana, and select and advance elite clones to produce and release improved sugarcane cultivars for sustainable production in Florida.
2. Characterize abiotic and biotic stress tolerance of sugarcane breeding populations to determine agronomic, physiological, and genetic relationships, and use the information in breeding programs to improve efficiency of selection methodologies.
2.A. Develop physiological and agronomic methodologies to screen yield components of sugarcane clones for tolerance to flowering characteristics.
2.B. Compare and determine methodologies that improve selection efficiency and maximize genetic gains in the Canal Point sugarcane breeding programs.
2.C. Develop and compare physiological testing and genetic x environmental interactions for sugarcane and its relatives, to determine abiotic tolerance and yield potentials that can be used for both sugarcane and biomass yield advancement.
3. Elucidate the molecular and genetic bases of disease resistance, low temperature stress, high sucrose content, and high biomass yield, develop molecular markers, and use molecular markers to screen germplasm and progenies for stress tolerance, yield, and quality.
3.A. Develop and test genomic prediction models for clonal and parental selection for disease resistance, biomass yield, and sucrose content.
3.B. Identify and screen sugarcane and its relative germplasm for freeze damage and cold tolerance. Utilize genotypic sequencing and phenotypic screening to ascertain putative associative markers linking abiotic tolerance and yield response with specific genetic loci.
3.C. Develop molecular markers for sugarcane disease resistance and high sucrose concentration.
3.D. Development and utilization of 100K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in Saccharum Spp.
Approach
The primary goal of this project is to improve yields and profits of Florida sugarcane growers by developing more productive and profitable cultivars with improved resistance and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Most research in genetics, agronomy, crop physiology, and molecular biology focuses on improving the breeding and selection of cultivars to yield more on muck and sand soils and have tolerance or durable resistance to diseases and abiotic stresses. This process will be enhanced through improved knowledge of classic and molecular genetics, identification of important traits for selection, and selection methodologies. A portion of the research aims to improve yields through modified agronomic practices.
Specific efforts may focus on developing improved cultivars with disease resistance and high sucrose concentration using different approaches, especially our new sand-soil program and this may include the pursuit of links between traditional efforts to breed for increased sucrose yields and newer programs that use sugarcane and related species for cellulosic ethanol and enhanced evaluations of the genotypes. The scientists at Canal Point are expected to interact with each other and with colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville and its Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade, and with other public and private industry scientists in Florida and Louisiana, Texas, and other areas. Over the next 5 years, we will focus on our specific objectives.
Progress Report
To maintain economic and sustainable sugarcane production, consistently developing disease tolerant and high sugar yield cultivars is important. In addition to making efforts for improving the Canal Point (CP) sugarcane breeding and cultivar development programs (CP programs), true seeds, developed from crosses at Canal Point, Florida, were sent to the ARS sugarcane cultivar development program in Houma, Louisiana (Objective 1). In the 2021-2022 crossing season, approximately 503,572 seeds from 779 crosses were sent to Louisiana; 757,245 seeds from 1,413 crosses remained in Florida. Of these seeds and crosses, 489,903 seeds from 969 crosses for the regular (muck-soil) CP program; 64,202 seeds from 102 crosses made for the Florida sand-land CP program; and 201,398 seeds from 338 crosses made for the Florida both soils or others. There were 62,223 seedlings from 303 crosses transplanted in the seedling fields in May 2022 at Canal Point and approximately 9,725 seedlings (from 52 crosses) transplanted in Clewiston for sand soils in Florida on May 12, 2022. Additionally, 6,235 seedlings (from 112 crosses) were transplanted in the progeny tests at Canal Point on May 25, 2022. There were 5,671 genotypes planted in Stage I in late January – early February 2022 and 1,504 genotypes of CP-20 series planted in Stage II in late November 2021 at Canal Point, Florida. The CP cultivars developed for the 12th consecutive year by ARS occupied more than 95% of the sugarcane acreage in Florida in 2021. In 2022, for the 12th consecutive year, all stages of the sand-land selection program were planted on sand soils, beginning with the seedling stage with some specific crosses made for sand soils. In addition, all stages of the selection for the muck-soil CP program were conducted on muck soils. Cultivars released for a specific type of soil are further tested on the other type of soils to investigate if these cultivars can be adapted on the contrast soils. In 2022, there were three new cultivars released (CP 15-1407, CP 15-2258, CP 15-2516) for muck in Florida. These new released superior cultivars are expected to have higher yield and are resistant/tolerant to most diseases. The program of each stage of the CP program was directly related to Objective 1 of the project. Additionally, some agronomic, physiological from objective 2, and molecular data from objective 3 were collected in 2021-2022 with limited capacity of resource due to restriction of COVID.
Accomplishments
1. Development of High-Yielding and Disease Resistant Sugarcane Cultivars for Commercial Production. The biggest challenge sugarcane growers in Florida are facing is still orange rust and brown rust diseases. The rusts have recently caused considerable yield losses and an increase in input costs of fungicide applications. Therefore, development of new cultivars with disease resistance, high yields, and high profits using different approaches, such as genetics, genomics, agronomy, physiology, and molecular biology, is the priority of our Canal Point (CP) sugarcane breeding and cultivar development programs. ARS scientists at Canal Point, Florida collaborated with other institutes and released three new high-yielding sugarcane cultivars, CP 15-1407, CP 15-2258, CP 15-2516 for muck soils with disease resistance / tolerance on 1 June 2022 for growers to use in Florida. The new cultivars will mitigate negative effects of brown and orange rusts and other stresses on sugar yield and profits in Florida.
2. Molecular Markers for Sugarcane Orange Rust Resistance. Sugarcane orange rust appeared in the Western hemisphere 14 years ago and negatively affected the Florida sugarcane industry as well as the Canal Point (CP) sugarcane cultivar development programs. Scientists at ARS Canal Point and at the University of Florida worked closely from molecular approaches to develop markers that improve screening efficiency for rust and enhance selection for rust-resistant cultivars. The phenotypic disease data obtained from the segregating population have been used for marker development. Quantitative trait loci associated with orange rust resistance has been identified. The findings have been presented in national and international meetings and in peer-reviewed journals. Diagnostic markers will be further tested for potential use in the CP sugarcane cultivar development programs. The genomic selection model for rust diseases resistance have been calibrated and planning to use for validation population. One manuscript has been published in The Plant Genome.
Review Publications
Islam, M.S., Mccord, P.H., Olatoye, M.O., Qin, L., Sood, S.G., Lipka, A.E., Todd, J.R. 2021. Experimental evaluation of genomic selection prediction for rust resistance in sugarcane. The Plant Genome. 14(3). Article e20148. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20148.
Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Sood, S.G., Momotaz, A., Davidson, W.R., Baltazar, M., Gordon, V.S., Mcccord, P.H., Coto Arbelo, O. 2022. Registration of ‘CP 13-1223’ sugarcane for Florida organic soils. Journal of Plant Registrations. 16:54-63. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20186.
Momotaz, A., Mccord, P.H., Davidson, W.R., Zhao, D., Baltazar, M., Arbelo Coto, O., Sandhu, H.S. 2021. Evaluation of sugarcane genotypes with respect to sucrose yield across three crop cycles using GGE biplot analysis. Experimental Agriculture. 57(3): 203-215. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479721000144.
Momotaz, A., Davidson, W.R., Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Sood, S.G., Baltazar, M., Coto Arbelo, O., Gordon, V.S., Mccord, P.H. 2022. Registration of 'CP 13-4100' sugarcane. Journal of Plant Registrations. 16:34-43. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20173.
Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Davidson, W.R., Gordon, V.S., Islam, M.S., Mccord, P.H., Sood, S.G., Baltazar, M., Coto Arbelo, O., Momotaz, A. 2022. Registration of 'CP 12-1417' sugarcane. Journal of Plant Registrations. 16:64-72. https://doi.org10.1002/plr2.20192.
Sood, S.G., Momotaz, A., Davidson, W.R., Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Baltazar, M., Gordon, V.S., Mccord, P.H., Coto Arbelo, O. 2022. Registration of ‘CP 12-1753’ sugarcane. Journal of Plant Registrations. 16:44-53. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20178.
Zhao, Y., Paudel, D., Islam, T., Momotaz, A., Luo, Z., Zhao, Z., Feng, M., Yang, X., Wang, J., Sicheng, L., Qing, X., Bowen, K. 2021. Advances in genomics approaches shed light on crop domestication. Plants. 10(8):1571. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10081571.
