Genomics and Applied Biology, 2017, Vol.8, No.1, 1-7
4
Agrobacterium harboring pGreen0029 vector containing AVP1 (Arabidopsis Vacuolar Pyrophosphatase-1) gene
driven under 35S CaMV promoter for genetic transformation against drought and salinity tolerance in sugarcane.
Bax Inhibitor-1 gene from
Arabidopsis thaliana
(AtBI-1) into sugarcane offers suppression of ER (endoplasmic
reticulum) stress in C4 grasses which can be an effective means of conferring improved tolerance to long-term
water deficit (Ramiro et al., 2016).
In recent years, development of transgenic plants is increasing rapidly in sugarcane. Sugarcane has been also
genetically modified for sugar yield and quality traits (Botha and Groenewald 2001; Vickers et al., 2005),
pharmaceuticals (Wang et al., 2005), novel sugars with potential benefits to consumer (OGTR, 2004). Besides,
many biotic and abiotic stresses related to physiological characters have been studied in transgenic sugarcane.
These include resistance to sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) (Gilbert et al., 2005), yellow leaf virus (Gilbert et al.,
2009), sugarcane borer (Gao et al., 2016) and leaf scald resistance, herbicide tolerance, antibiotic resistance,
drought and salinity tolerance (Kumar 2013; Reis et al., 2014). Production of naturally occurring compounds for
use in bioplastics, altered plant growth, enhanced nitrogen use efficiency, improved sucrose accumulation,
improved cellulosic ethanol production from sugarcane biomass, altered plant architecture, enhanced water use
efficiency, incorporation of green fluorescent reporter gene, altered juice colour (Manickavasagam 2004; Mitchell
2011) are the outcome of transgenic technology. Further, genetic engineering of sugarcane varieties that can
produce high-value compounds e.g., pharmaceutically important proteins, functional foods, nutraceuticals,
biopolymers, precursors, enzymes and biopigments are paving ways to launch sugarcane as a biofactory in
coming years (Grice et al., 2003; Suprasanna, 2010).
The expression of
G. frondosa
TSase gene under the control of a promoter CaMV35S improve drought tolerance
in sugarcane (Zhang et al., 2006) compared with non-transgenic plants. Similarly, Wang et al. (2005) developed
the transgenic sugarcane plants harboring
Grifola frondosa
synthase
gene which improved tolerance to osmotic
stress. In another study, over-expression of heterologous P5CS gene under stress inducible promoter (AIPC) was
also reported to enhance drought
tolerance in sugarcane (Molinari et al., 2007).
The Arabidopsis CBF4 gene
transferred to sugarcane under the control of the maize ubiquitin promoter and the nos terminator was reported to
improve drought tolerance (McQualter and Dookun-Saumtally, 2007). Besides, drought tolerance has been
attempted in sugarcane by using Arabidopsis Vacuolar Pyrophosphatase (AVP1) gene (Kumar et al., 2014) and
induced over-expression of AtDREB2A CA (a transcriptional factor) (Reis et al., 2014), SodERF3 (a novel
sugarcane ethylene responsive factor) and Arabidopsis bax inhibitor-1 gene.
4 Conclusions
A ready-in highly regeneration protocol is the pre-requisite for successful genetic transformation in any crop.
Several researchers developed cost effective, rapid and efficient regeneration system in elite sugarcane genotypes
using varied hormonal recipes, other media supplements and culture conditions. Recently, a number of transgenic
techniques have been used for transfer of useful genes from diversified genetic background. However,
Agrobacterium-
mediated genetic transformation proved to have several advantages over direct gene transfer
techniques in sugarcane. The present review reveals successful development of genetically modified genotypes
with improved quality features and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in sugarcane.
Acknowledgements
We sincerely acknowledge and thank all researchers for their valuable contributions included in this pursuit.
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