Herbicide-tolerant sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) plants: an unconventional method of weed removal

Abstract

Unnecessary weed growth in sugarcane fields forces plants to compete for nutrients and sunlight for survival, which most often leads to significant yield losses. As chemical herbicides cannot differentiate between crop plants and weeds, the development of herbicide-tolerant crops is anticipated. Four sugarcane varieties, CPF-234, CPF-213, HSF-240, and CPF-246, were used to develop glyphosate herbicide tolerance. A glyphosate-tolerant gene of 1368 bp cloned directionally under the 35S promoter with the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene was used as the transgene. Through the biolistic transformation of sugarcane, calli of all cultivars were transformed with glyphosate-tolerant gene constructs. Efficient regeneration conditions were optimized on 1.5-2.5 mg/L kinetin, 1.5-2.5 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), and 1 mg/L gibberellic acid (GA 3 ). The transformants exhibited the best shoot regeneration on a medium containing 2 mg/L kinetin, 2 mg/L BAP, 2 mg/L GA 3 , and 1 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid. Based on initial screenings through GUS assay, the transformation efficiency was 22%, 32%, 17%, and 13% for cultivars 246, 234, 213, and 240, respectively. In transformed sugarcane plants, the transgene of 1368 bp was amplified. ELISA with gene-specific coated monoclonal IgG confirmed the transgene protein expression. It was revealed that all acclimatized transgenic sugarcane plants survived the glyphosate spray application of 900 mL/0.404 ha, except for the control nontransformed plants. However, at spray application of 1100 mL/0.404 ha, transgenic plants having the transgene protein OD of 0.2 to 1.0 did not survive, while those that had a transgene protein OD range of between 1.0 and 2.0 did. In addition, weeds growing alongside transgenic sugarcane plants turned brown and subsequently died at glyphosate spray applications of both 900 and 1100 mL/0.404 ha.

Optimization of Protocols for In Vitro Regeneration of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)

“…In vitro propagation and other in vitro techniques are in common use in agriculture and horticulture for solving various problems related to plant and mass propagation of crop plants [12]. In vitro propagation of sugarcane is a model system to investigate sugar uptake [13], sugar metabolism [14], disease control [15], improvement of yield components [16], and weed control via herbicide tolerance [17]. Use of plant tissue culture is a preferable technique to solve the agricultural problems over conventional methods, as plants are grown in controlled environment in tissue culture.…”

Novel approaches to circumvent the devastating effects of pests on sugarcane

“…Tungsten particles were used as microprojectiles and were prepared as described Qamar et al 35 . The sugarcane transformation was proceeded by following the protocol described by Nasir et al 37 .…”

Effect of Salinity on Emergence and Early Growth Stages of Aromatic and Non-Aromatic Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes

“…In Pakistan, agriculture is facing plenty of problems and issues regarding crop production (Muzaffar et al, 2015;Rao et al, 2013). Several approaches are being attempted to cope against those problems and issues (Awan et al, 2015;Nasir et al, 2014). Soil salinity, an abiotic stress is also one of the major problems which not only reduce the crop growing area but also its yield throughout the world (Kronzucker et al, 2008).…”