Varieties, plant breeding and release

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Research outcomes: Comprehensive and efficient variety breeding, selection and release programs responding to yield expectations, environmental constraints, resource scarcity and regional preferences. Faster varietal adoption using advanced methods for bulking, distribution and planting.

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An assessment of the application of DNA markers to studies of genetic diversity and marker assisted selection in sugarcane : SRDC Final report SD99001
(1999) Carroll, B; McIntyre, L; Berding, N
The project objectives were as follows:
Assessment of bulk segregant analysis and marker- assisted selection for economically important traits in sugarcane : SRDC final report BS138
(1998) Carroll, B; Berding, N; McIntyre, L
The main aim of this project was to assess the feasibility of bulk segregant analysis (BSA) and marker-assisted selection for important traits in sugarcane. The target trait for this feasibility study was rust resistance. Initially, crosses were successfully made between susceptible and resistant parents to produce two mapping populations. Unfortunately and surprisingly, we were not able to identify fully susceptible clones in four separate rust trials on the two populations. Poor rust development occurred in the first bench trial in 1996 at Meringa (including clones known to be susceptible), and the second trial in January 1997 was a total failure due to lack of rust development. The third rust resistance trial was conducted in Meringa in July 1997, but all of the clones in the mapping populations were resistant. The fourth rust trial on these two populations was completed at the start of 1998, and the results confirmed that all of the clones in these two initial mapping populations were resistant to common rust. Lack of segregation for rust resistance within progeny of sugarcane crosses had not been observed previously by sugarcane breeders in Meringa. This unexpected problem delayed the project as BSA could only proceed after a mapping population segregating for rust resistance had been identified.
Duplication of photoperiodic initiation facility at BSES : SRDC Final report BSS218
(2000) Berding, N
Partnership-funded research by SRDC and BSES has resulted in excellent flowering being obtainable in populations of parental sugarcanes that flowered reluctantly, or never, under natural conditions at BSES Meringa. This improved flowering was obtained using plant management and initiation techniques developed in this research, using the BSES photoperiod facility (PF) commissioned in 1986. The objective of this project, an infrastructure proposal, was simple in that duplication of the existing PF was proposed. A project manager was engaged to facilitate the project. Essentially, the existing PF was duplicated. Changes to the design were made to minimise costs, and improve functionality. The concrete slab was simplified and the front portal frame design modified to allow installation of three normally-rolled roller doors. A new generation control system, based on direct digital controllers was installed. A prolonged and intense monsoonal season, coupled with delays in the delivery of key components and unforeseen time required for commissioning of the control system, resulted in a delayed start to the initiation regime on 9 October 1999. Once in-house expertise had been acquired to allow complete checking of the controller functions, and misinterpreted operational specifications corrected, the PF operated fully as expected. As a consequence of these factors the implementation of the first initiation regime was less than satisfactory. The level of initiation achieved fell well below that possible. Ten clones produced 97 panicles, with the number per clone ranging from 1 to 68, the latter being produced by the clone Mandalay, a S. spontaneum clone originating from Myanmar. The duplicated PF is a state-of-the-art facility that is now fully operational after debugging during the first, delayed operational run. The facility is committed to the CP2002 funded project BSS219 for five years.
Effect of far-red radiation on flowering of saccharum spp. hybrids
(1990) Berding, N; Moore, PH
Many tropical sugarcane clones (Saccharum spp. hybrids) are unavailable for hybridization because of poor flowering. Methods are required to improve the flowering of such clones. This study was conducted to determine whether far-red radiation (> 700 nm) at end-of-day would improve flowering. Three treatments in a photoperiod facility (PPF) were compared to an external control (EC) under natural photoperiod. A basic treatment known as modified Florida (MF) was used in all PPF treatments and served as the internal control. This was altered to provide a far-red (FR) treatment, by addition of either 5 or 10 min of far-red radiation at end-of-day, and a day interrupt (DI) treatment, by imposition of 2 hr of darkness in mid afternoon. Percent flowering as harvested panicles was 21.0, 24.2, 24.6, and 9.5 for FR, DI, MF, and EC, respectively. Total flowering was 23.4, 28.9, 27.0, and 10.7, respectively. The PPF treatments did not differ significantly for either measure. All were highly significantly greater than EC. The far-red treatments did not differ for harvested panicles. Treatments differed significantly for time of flowering. The flowering sequence was EC, MF, FR, and then DI. There were significant differences among clones in all treatments for emergence day, initiation day, elapsed days, and pollen test. Correlations among these measures were varied, with some being significant. Far red at end-of-day neither stimulated nor inhibited flowering in the PPF treatments. The FR and DI treatments delayed emergence of flowering.
Effect of far-red radiation on flowering of Saccharum spp. hybrids : SRDC Final report BS1S
(1990) Berding, N; Moore, PH
Many tropical sugarcane clones (Saccharum spp. hybrids) are unavailable for hybridization because of poor flowering. Methods are required to improve the flowering of such clones. This study was conducted to determine whether far-red radiation (> 700 nm) at end-of day would improve flowering. Three treatments in a photoperiod facility (PPF) were compared to an external control (EC) under natural photoperiod. A basic treatment known as modified Florida (MF) was used in all PPF treatments and served as the internal control. This was altered to provide a far-red (FR) treatment, by addition of either 5 or 10 min of far-red radiation at end-of-day, and a day interrupt (Dr) treatment, by imposition of 2 hr of darkness in mid afternoon. Percent flowering as harvested panicles was 21.0, 24.2, 24.6, and 9.5 for FR, Dr, MF, and EC, respectively. Total flowering was 23.4, 28.9, 27.0, and 10.7, respectively. The PPF treatments did not differ significantly for either measure. All were highly significantly greater than EC. The far-red treatments did not differ for harvested panicles. Treatments differed significantly for time of flowering. The flowering sequence was EC, MF, FR, and then DI. There were significant differences among clones in all treatments for emergence day, initiation day, elapsed days, and pollen test. Correlations among these measures were varied, with some being significant. Far red at end-of-day neither stimulated nor inhibited flowering in the PPF treatments. The FR and Dr treatments delayed emergence of flowering.
Effect of far-red radiation on flowering of Saccharum spp. Hybrids : SRDC final report BS1S
(1990) Berding, N; Moore, PH
Many tropical sugarcane clones (Saccharum spp. hybr ids) are unavailable for hybridization because of poor flowering. Methods are required to improve the flowering of such clones. This study was conducted to determine whether far-red radiation (> 700 nm) at end-ofday would improve flowering. Three treatments in a photoperiod facility (PPF) were compared to an external control (EC) under natural photoperiod. A basic treatment known as modified Florida (MF) was used in all PPF treatments and served as the internal control. This was altered to provide a far-red (FR) treatment, by addition of either 5 or 10 min of far-red radiation at end-of-day, and a day interrupt (DI) treatment, by imposition of 2 hr of darkness in mid afternoon. Percent flowering as harvested panicles was 21.0, 24.2, 24.6, and 9.5 for FR, DI, MF, and EC, respectively. Total flowering was 23.4, 28.9, 27.0, and 10.7, respectively. The PPF treatments did not differ significantly for ei ther measure. All were highly significantly greater than EC. The far-red treatments did not differ for harvested panicles. Treatments differed significantly for time of flowering. The flowering sequence was EC, MF, FR, and then Dr. There were significant differences among clones in all treatments for emergence day, initiation day, elapsed days, and pollen test. Correlations among these measures were varied, with some being significant. Far red at end-of-day neither stimulated nor inhibited flowering in the PPF treatments. The FR and Dr treatments delayed emergence of flowering.
Efficiency of bunch-planted and single-planted seedlings for selecting superior crosses in sugar cane : volumes 1 - 7
(BSES, 2004) Skinner, JC; Berding, N; Hogarth, DM
Environmental stimuli for sugarcane suckering in the wet tropics : SRDC final report BSS221
(2003) Berding, N; Hurney, AP; Bonnett, GD; Joseph, F
The northern section of the industry has been in crisis for most of the years in the decade up to 2002 because of declining CCS. This decline has been due to increased extraneous matter levels due largely to increased sucker culm content of the crop. These have developed because of marked wet episodes during the harvest period in the majority of years in this period. This resulted in open canopy situations, because of sprawling and lodging, increased light penetration, and initiation and development of sucker culm populations.A hypothesis was proposed that excessive mature-crop moisture, combined with continued excessive nitrogen use, particularly early in the decade were initiating variables for the problem. Observations suggested that light, via an open canopy situation, also was a driver.The project tackled the problem with a preliminary series of experiments that allowed optimisation of management and data collection techniques for use in a main experiment proposed. The main experiment sought to establish the importance of levels of three environmental variables, light, nitrogen and moisture, on sucker initiation, and their interaction with each other and with two cultivars of known suckering propensity under commercial conditions.The preliminary experiments allowed us to make the following recommendations for the design and methods for the main experiment:1. The late nitrogen application of 70 kg N will be in late April early May if the weather is suitable and as soon as possible thereafter if the weather is too wet to allow the application at the desired time.2. That spectroradiometry measurements will be made in the core plots at a height of 10 cm and 1 m to determine the effect of plant spacing on the spectral composition received. Photosynthetically active radiation measurements will also be made.3. A similar soil sampling and nitrate measurement regime will be made in the main experiment as that in the preliminary experiment with the exception that more frequent smaller diameter cores will be taken to speed up sampling.4. Sucker counting and other trial management will continue as originally proposed.5. Applications of late N will be made in separate experiments on different cultivars and if possible to soils with low basal nitrate levels.
High day temperature inhibition of sugarcane flowering : SRDC final report BSS158
(2000) Berding, N; King, RW
The objectives of this project was to determine the sensitivity of the floral initiation process in sugarcane to day temperatures exceeding 32?C.The objective was not achieved because no meristems were initiated in the five experiments conducted, and therefore the hypothesis remains untested. This was despite precise temperature control being effected in the CSIRO phytotron.
Introgression of erianthus germplasm into the saccharum gene pool & Investigation of the saccharum spontaneum contribution to commercial clones by genomic DNA In SITU hybridisation : SRDC Final reports BS115 & BS139
(1999) Piperidis, G; D'Hont, A; Berding, N
Project objectives:
Introgression of new genes from Saccharum officinarum
(SRDC, 2004) Jackson, P; Piperidis, G; Aitken, K; Li, J; Morgan, T; Foreman, J; Hewitt, M; McIntyre, L; Berding, N
Modern sugarcane cultivars are derived from two main ancestral species: Saccharum officinarum, which is the main source of high sucrose levels, and S. spontaneum. Only a small number of clones of either species have ever been incorporated into commercial cane breeding programs around the world. While incremental gains in cane yield and ratooning have been made by sugarcane breeders over the last 40 years sugarcane, there is concern that improvement in CCS has been very limited. One hypothesis for this is that because of the limited genetic base of sugarcane favourable alleles for high CCS in the breeding parent pool have already been fixed in current cultivars. If this hypothesis is correct then new genetic diversity will need to be introgressed from germplasm outside current breeding programs. Clones of S. officinarum, available in germplasm collections may provide a source of valuable high sucrose genes. However, introgression breeding using traditional breeding technologies is long term and high risk. The development of new DNA marker techniques has provided new opportunities for improving introgression breeding. These techniques provide a means to (i) characterise diversity within germplasm collections, (ii) identify genes or chromosomal regions, termed quantitative trait loci (QTL), from wild parents which cause positive or negative effects on important traits, which may then be selected for or against during breeding cycles. With this background in mind, this project had two concurrent aims: (i) To characterise a collection of S. officinarum clones for important phenotypic traits and for genetic diversity using DNA markers and identify a set of these for future breeding efforts; (ii) Using case study populations, to assess the value of using DNA marker assisted selection in introgression breeding in sugarcane. A range of candidate S. officinarum x commercial parent crosses were made at the start of the project using a random sample of S. officinarum clones not previously used in our breeding breeding program. From these a “case study” population was chosen for detailed investigation using DNA markers. Two of the progeny were subsequently chosen for “backcrossing” again to proven commercial parents to produce two other “backcross” populations. Concurrently, the collection of 282 S. officinarum clones in the Australian collection was also characterised using DNA markers, along with 147 parent clones in the Australian core breeding program. A subset of 158 S. officinarum clones, recently imported from overseas, was also evaluated in a field trial for CCS and cane yield across a plant and two ratoon crops.
Optimum plot shape for variety trials - effect of competition between varieties : Final report 39905083
(1991) Berding, N; Skinner, JC
Four plot shapes were compared using four replications of 60 clones. The shapes were 4-row long (4L), 4-row short (4S), 2-row long (2L) and 1-row long (1L). The standard length of 9.2m was used for long plots, short plots being 4.6m. A special design was used to compare all plot shapes in sub-blocks of six clones, but it was analysed as randomised complete blocks. With guard rows and ends the trial occupied 3.7 ha. It was located on the farm of L Johnson in the Mulgrave mill area.
Reducing the Australian sugar industry's genetic vulnerability to sugarcane smut : SRDC final report BSS256
(2007) Croft, BJ; Berding, N
Sugarcane smut was recorded for the first time in Australia in July 1998 in the Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) and was identified in the Bundaberg/Isis, Central and Herbert regions of Queensland in 2006. Sugarcane smut can cause losses from 30-100% in susceptible varieties. The objective of this project was to rate Australian commercial varieties, advanced selections in the BSES/CSIRO selection programs, and parental clones for resistance to smut. The ratings will be used to provide smut- resistant varieties to the Australian sugar industry and to assist the breeding program to increase the frequency of smut-resistant genes in breeding populations.This project continues the work commenced in the SRDC project BSS214 Screening of Australian Germplasm for Resistance to Sugarcane Smut. The smut-screening trials were conducted on Madura Island by the Indonesian Sugar Research Institute (ISRI) under contract to BSES.
Understanding the reproductive biology and ecology of sugarcane to manage the safe release of genetically modified cultivars
(2010) Bonnett, G; Olivares-Villegas; Berding, N; Morgan, T; Collins, P
This project set out to obtain basic and previously unavailable information on the ecology and sexual reproduction of sugarcane primarily so advances in sugarcane biotechnology can be utilised to the benefit of the Australian sugarcane industry and the broader Australian economy. The production and commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) sugarcane has attracted increased international interest in recent years, and this has been exemplified by significant, sustained investment in sugarcane biotechnology by large national and international companies. To commercialise GM sugarcane, the proposed cane has to undergo rigorous regulatory assessment including safety to humans and the environment. A significant part of this assessment relates to how a given sugarcane clone functions in the environment (s) where it will be grown, and the likelihood and impact of transfer of the modified trait to other commercial sugarcane or other sympatric sexually compatible species. While such assessments are performed for each proposed GM sugarcane cultivar under consideration, general information about the sexual reproduction and ecology of sugarcane is also important to help understand potential hazards. For sugarcane, this basic information is scant, largely because the stalk not the seed is the harvested product (i.e. sugarcane is vegetatively propagated) and so the sexual reproduction process have not previously been studied in commercially grown sugarcane. This project undertook a series of studies to help fill the ‘information void’ on sugarcane. The project involved several surveys and experiments using cane in farmers’ fields to understand the level of flowering and viable seed production under commercial production. Species that could be sexually compatible with sugarcane were determined through analysis of the breeding literature to see what crosses had been achieved with human intervention. This was followed by comparison with botanical records to determine which of the potential species were present in sugar growing regions.