Location: Sugarcane Field Station
2023 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 2022-2023 crossing season, approximately 1,008,405 seeds from 846 crosses were sent to Louisiana; 2,417,488 seeds from 1,407 crosses remained in Florida. Of these seeds and crosses, 1,516,084 seeds from 961 crosses for the regular (muck-soil) CP program; 477,704 seeds from 206 crosses made for the Florida sand-land CP program; and 423,700 seeds from 240 crosses made for the Florida soils or others. There were 75,954 seedlings from 244 families transplanted in the Seedling fields in May 2023 at Canal Point and approximately 11,254 seedlings (from 75 families) transplanted in Clewiston for sand soils in Florida on May, 2023. Additionally, 6,235 seedlings (from 112 crosses) were transplanted in the progeny tests at Canal Point on May, 2023. There were 6,150 genotypes planted in Stage I in late January – early February 2023 and a total of 1557 genotypes (1,503 of CP-21 series, 21 CP 19, 29 CP 17, 3 CP15 and 1 CP 14 planted in Stage II in late November 2022 at Canal Point, Florida. The CP cultivars for the 12th consecutive year developed by ARS occupied more than 95% of the sugarcane acreage in Florida in 2022. In 2023, 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 2023, there were five new superior cultivars (CP 12-2479, CP 14-1933, CP 16-1825, CP 16-1883 and CP 16-2283) for muck and three new superior cultivar (CP 12-2035, CP 14-4165 and CP 15-4302) released for sand soils in Florida. These new released cultivars are expected to yield well 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. 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 2022-2023 crossing season, approximately 1,008,405 seeds from 846 crosses were sent to Louisiana; 2,417,488 seeds from 1,407 crosses remained in Florida. Of these seeds and crosses, 1,516,084 seeds from 961 crosses for the regular (muck-soil) CP program; 477,704 seeds from 206 crosses made for the Florida sand-land CP program; and 423,700 seeds from 240 crosses made for the Florida both soils or others. There were 75,954 seedlings from 244 families transplanted in the Seedling fields in May 2023 at Canal Point and approximately 11,254 seedlings (from 75 families) transplanted in Clewiston for sand soils in Florida on May, 2023. Additionally, 6,235 seedlings (from 112 crosses) were transplanted in the progeny tests at Canal Point on May, 2023. There were 6,150 genotypes planted in Stage I in late January – early February 2023 and a total of 1557 genotypes (1,503 of CP-21 series, 21 CP19, 29 CP17, 3 CP15 and 1 CP14 planted in Stage II in late November 2022 at Canal Point, Florida. The CP cultivars for the 12th consecutive years developed by ARS occupied more than 95% of the sugarcane acreage in Florida in 2022. In 2023, for the 12 consecutive years, 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 2023, there were five new superior cultivars (CP 12-2479, CP 14-1933, CP 16-1825, CP 16-1883 and CP 16-2283) for muck and three new superior cultivar (CP 12-2035, CP 14-4165 and CP 15-4302) released for sand soils in Florida. These new released cultivars are expected to yield well 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. In regard to Objective 2A, 2B- with a modified experiment, seedlings from families were evaluated for ther genetic merit and advanced. 2C was not met due to covid restriction. In Objective 3d, eleven sugar and yield related traits (ratooning ability) were using 10,435 single nucleotide chip and that study demonstrated that GS could potentially predict the genomic estimated breeding value for selecting the desired germplasm for sugarcane breeding.
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 eight new high-yielding sugarcane cultivars, CP 12-2479, CP 14-1933, CP 16-1825, CP 16-1883 and CP 16-2283 for muck and CP 12-2035, CP 14-4165 and CP 15-4302) released for sand soils with disease resistance / tolerance on 1 June 2023 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, Florida, and at the University of Florida worked closely on molecular approach to develop markers for improving screening efficiency and enhancing the rust resistance. 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 are being proposed for potential use in the CP sugarcane cultivar development programs. Genomic selection could potentially shorten the breeding cycles and select best progenies by using only genotype data without time consuming and labor intensive phenotype data. Scientists evaluated different genomic prediction models using 432 sugarcane clones for determining the utility of genomic selection in the U.S. sugarcane breeding for the first time in the USA. Results revealed that genomic selection has potentiality to utilize in the sugarcane breeding for disease resistance, yield, and sugar related traits after further validation. Sugarcane ratooning ability (RA) is the most important target trait for breeders seeking to enhance the profitability of sugarcane production by reducing the planting cost. Scientists did another unique and novel study in the world by conducting a genomic analysis of the RA of sugarcane. They conducted GWAS, identified putative candidate genes, and predicted genetic values of the RA of five sugar and yield related traits in sugarcane for the first time ever.
Review Publications
Coto Arbelo, O., Davidson, W.R., Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Sood, S.G., Momotaz, A., Baltazar, M., Gordon, V.S. 2022. Registration of ‘CP 14-1934’ sugarcane for Florida organic soils. Journal of Plant Registrations. 17:91-101. http://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20260.
Coto Arbelo, O., Momotaz, A., Sandhu, H.S., Sood, S.G., Davidson, W.R., Baltazar, M., Zhao, D. 2023. Selection of new sugarcane genotypes for sandy soils in Florida with enhanced sucrose yield. Agriculture. 13:1079. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13051079.
Chiranjibi, P., Sandhu, H., Yiannis, A., Calvin-Odero, D., Coto Arbelo, O., Cherry, R.H., Fideles-Costa, L. 2022. Prediction of morpho-physiological traits in sugarcane using aerial imagery and machine learning. Smart Agricultural Technology. 3. Article 100104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2022.100104.
Chiranjibi, P., Lucas Fideles, C., Sandhu, H., Yiannis, A., Dennis Calvin, O., Coto Arbelo, O., Cherry, R.A. 2022. Sugarcane yield prediction and genotype selection using unmanned aerial vehicle-based hyperspectral imaging and machine learning. Agronomy Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21133.
Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H.S., Zhao, D., Sood, S.G., Momotaz, A., Baltazar, M., Coto Arbelo, O., Davidson, W.R., Gordon, V.S. 2022. Registration of ‘CP 13-4474’ sugarcane for sand soils. Journal of Plant Registrations. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20259.
Islam, M.S., Qin, L., Mccord, P.H., Sood, S.G. 2023. Enhancing prediction accuracy by incorporating known locus (Bru1) as fixed effect for brown rust resistance in sugarcane. International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists Proceedings. 31:443-446.
Momotaz, A., Zhao, D. 2022. Responses of sugarcane genotypes to salinity stress during growth and flowering. American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists. 42:51-60. 2022
Momotaz, A., Baltazar, M., Coto Arbelo, O., Davidson, W., Islam, M.S., Sandhu, H., Zhao, D., Sood, S.G., Gordon, V.S. 2022. Registration of ‘CP 14-1490’ sugarcane. Journal of Plant Registrations. 17:102-113. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20264.
Sood, S.G., Gordon, V.S., Coto, O. 2023. Effect of sugarcane yellow leaf virus in the second clonal stage of the Canal Point cultivar development program. International Sugar Journal. 148:408-411. https://doi.org/10.36961/si29966.
Zhao, D., Zhu, K., Laborde, C. 2022. Sugarcane growth, physiological and yield responses to application of Trinexapac-ethyl (ModdusTM) in grand growth phase. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10748-5.
