Sugar Beet

Abstract

Sugar beet ( Beta vulgaris L.) is a significant industrial crop of the temperate zone that provides about a third of all sugar consumed in the world. World acreage of sugar beet harvested is currently greater than 7.7 million hectares. Market value of this crop is in the billions of US dollars. The increase in world population taken together with the increased demand for alternative energy sources suggests a growing need for increased production of sugar beet not only as a source of food but also as a source of biofuels. This anticipated demand provides the motivation for development of innovative approaches to augment classical breeding techniques for sugar beet improvement. Transgenic sugar beet has the potential to accelerate the development of adapted productive commercial hybrids. In addition to allowing the transfer of desirable genes from other sugar beet species, genes from unrelated organisms could be utilized in sugar beet improvement. Successful introduction of microbial genes that resulted in resistance to broad‐spectrum herbicides has demonstrated the potential of transgenic sugar beet. Discussed are the possibilities for generating transgenic sugar beet with improved disease and pest resistance and the physiological process related to adaptation, yield, and production of new products of economic value.

A protocol for sonication-assisted Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation of haploid and diploid sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) explants.

“…Both haploid genotypes were derived from two ovules of the same donor plant, which was not closely related to a donor of 168 genotype. Thus, the observed variation was due to genetic background of explants, a common factor identified in most research (Gurel et al, 2008;Smigocki et al, 2008).…”

“…Sugar beet is an important agricultural crop cultivated in 2012 on a total area of 4.9 million hectares, predominantly in Europe (FAOSTAT). It is mainly used for sugar production, but a number of by-products, such as leaves, molasses, sugar beet pulp are successfully used as fertilizers, animal feed or in food industry (Smigocki et al, 2008). For several years, sugar beet has been also used for ethanol and biofuel production (Bessou et al, 2011).…”

“…However, sugar beet is considered as one of the highly recalcitrant species to Agrobacterium. Thus, there is only a limited number of reports showing successful transformation and development of GM sugar beet plants (Smigocki et al, 2008). Several factors affect the efficiency of sugar beet transformation with the host plant genotype being one of the most critical one, what is explained by a high sugar beet heterozygosity.…”

Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

“…However, we note that our method is also genotype dependent, which is consistent with the general observation that most sugar beets are recalcitrant against dedifferentiation and regeneration in tissue culture (7,9). In fact, sugar beet lines showing efficient dedifferentiation and regeneration in response to tissue culture are limited (7,10).…”

Recent advances in functional genomics for sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) improvement: progress in determining the role of BvSTI in pest resistance in roots

“…Biotechnology facilitates the direct transfer of genes from other Beta species without the introduction of undesirable traits, as well as genes from unrelated organisms that can be utilized for sugar beet improvement (Cai et al, 1997). Recent advances in sugar beet transformation technology are improving the overall speed with which genetically modified sugar beet plants can be produced (for review, see Smigocki et al 2007b;Hall et al, 1996;Hisano et al, 2004;Ivic-Haymes and Smigocki, 2005a, b;Snyder et al, 1999). The success of genetic modification 1 3 of sugar beet for resistance to broad-spectrum herbicides, beet necrotic yellow vein virus and Cercospora leaf spot disease have been well-documented (De Block et al 1987;Kishchenko et al 2005;Lathouwers et al 2005;Lennefors et al 2006;Maleki et al 2003;Mannerlöf et al 1996Mannerlöf et al , 1997Pidgeon et al 2005;Tertivanidis et al 2004).…”