Varieties, plant breeding and release

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Effect of neonicotinoid, pyrethroid and spirotetramat insecticides and a miticide on incidence and severity of Yellow Canopy Syndrome : ASSCT peer-reviewed paper
(ASSCT, 2019) Olsen, DJ; Ward, AL
Yellow Canopy Syndrome (YCS) is a condition affecting Australian sugarcane that can lead to yield losses in excess of 30% in severely affected crops. The causal agent of this condition is unknown. Insect pests are well known causal agents of a wide variety of yield-limiting crop conditions, either as vectors of pathogens, directly through their feeding damage, or as transmitters of toxins, but little has been done to evaluate insects as a possible causal agent of YCS. This paper presents the findings of a one-year field trial in which insecticides from different chemical groups and an acaricide were tested to evaluate their effect on YCS incidence and severity. Results showed a delay in the onset of symptoms and a significant reduction in the severity of symptom expression following the application of neonicotinoid and pyrethroid treatments. These treatments also resulted in a significant yield improvement relative to cane in the untreated control. The acaricide treatment was ineffective. These findings suggest further work is warranted to determine which insects are being controlled and to identify the mechanism for the positive yield response.
Starch accumulation in sugarcane in response to stress
(ASSCT, 2016) Joyce, P; Don, NH; Sousa, M; Olsen, D
Yellow Canopy Syndrome (YCS) is a new problem affecting the Australian sugar industry. It was first reported in 2012 and has increased in occurrence and spread from the initial reports in North Queensland to further south in Mackay last year. While the causal agent is still unknown, several physiological studies have been performed. This paper examines the accumulation of starch in sugarcane leaves. This was an initial observation in YCS affected leaf sections of tillers of KQ228A. Subsequently, a method for routine high throughput qualitative analysis of starch has been developed, enabling rapid assessment of this response. Follow up work has compared this phenomenon in affected stalks, both between leaves of different ages within a stalk, as well as within regions of the same leaf. The accumulation of starch in sugarcane plants in response to biotic stress and in naturally senescing leaves has been undertaken to understand this phenomenon better and will be described in this paper. Our results showed that unlike YCS affected leaves, starch did not accumulate in the leaves of diseased plants nor in senescing leaves collected from the field.
Sugarcane root systems for increased productivity; development and application of a root health assay : final report 2015/002
(Sugar Research Australia Limited, 2018) Rae, A; Pierre, J
A better understanding of the sugarcane root system has the potential to improve productivity and overcome soil constraints. By adapting the digital methods that have been developed in other crops, we have developed a toolkit of reliable methods that enable analysis of large numbers of root samples. These methods have been used to provide a baseline understanding of the range and variation of root parameters for sugarcane, including root/shoot ratios, root opening angle, root length, proportion of fine roots, branching density, average diameter and diameter in each size class. We found a consistently high proportion of fine roots, but there was genetic variation for many other key traits amongst current commercial lines. Importantly, there were no significant reductions in root system size or quality in modern varieties compared to older varieties. The methods and baseline were then applied to test the response to stresses encountered in Australian growing environments. When comparing plants with or without YCS symptoms, we found no differences in root system structure, despite significant reductions in shoot mass. Limiting growth by removal of tillers or by restricting nitrogen availability identified plasticity in specific root traits that enabled the plants to adapt to the restrictions. Root system distribution by depth, and relative allocation of resources to the root system showed adaptations to stress while root angle appeared to be stable. With the new methods and knowledge of trait plasticity, we can now start to test which traits provide a benefit in various agronomic situations and develop an integrated understanding of root health which can be used to monitor soil health and promote the adoption of better agronomic practices.

Varieties, plant breeding and release

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