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Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of a Core Collection of Saccharum spontaneum L. in China

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Abstract

Saccharum spontaneum L. is widely used in developing new sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) cultivars due to its ability to transmit high vigor, ratooning ability, and increased tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Interspecific hybridization helps to broaden the genetic diversity of modern sugarcane cultivars, but there is a continual need to collect and characterize new sources of germplasm. The objective of this study was to evaluate a primary core collection of 92 S. spontaneum genotypes (82 were of Chinese origin) using 29 phenotypic traits and 15 simple sequence repeat markers. There was considerable morphological variation among the S. spontaneum genotypes. Principal component and heatmap analyses indicated that the genotypes could be separated into four groups using two major traits related to yield (stalk length, stalk diameter, and stalk weight) and juice quality traits (juice Brix, juice fiber, juice sucrose, and apparent purity). Genotypes collected from the same geographic location did not cluster together, so geography alone was not a good predictor of genotypic divergence in this collection. Phenotypic trait data alone failed to fully differentiate genotypes, but a combination of phenotypic and molecular data was useful in characterizing the genotypes. The phenotypic and molecular characterization of unexploited S. spontaneum germplasm will facilitate in the identification of potential parents for introgression and identification of high-yielding, disease-resistant cultivars, energy canes, and cultivars suited for abiotic stresses, thereby increasing the economic sustainability of sugarcane.

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Data Availability

The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Yunnan Natural Science Foundation (2016FB067, 2006C0013Z), funding from the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department for High-End Talent Program and the NFCA with USDA-ARS: A Study on Sugarcane Genetic Improvement and Application, Earmarked Fund for the protection of agricultural germplasm resource (2017NWB017), National Infrastructure for Crop Germplasm Resources (NICGR2018-44) and Egypt, Pakistan project of “Outstanding Young Scientist from Development Countries to Work in China”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Sugarcane Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Genetic Improvement, Kaiyuan, 661699, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Chao-hua Xu, Xin-long Liu, David M. Burner, Zaheer Abbas, Ibrahim Soliman Elgamal, Xin Lu & Huo-sheng Su

  2. Sugarcane Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Houma, LA, 70360, USA

    Yong-Bao Pan

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  1. Chao-hua Xu
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  2. Xin-long Liu
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  3. David M. Burner
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  4. Zaheer Abbas
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  5. Yong-Bao Pan
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  6. Ibrahim Soliman Elgamal
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  7. Xin Lu
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  8. Huo-sheng Su
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Contributions

HS and XL conceived and designed the experiments. HS, XL, and XL conducted the experiments. CX, XL, YP, and DMB analyzed the data. CX and XL contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. CX, HS, XL, and YP wrote the manuscript, and DMB, YP, ZA, and ISE revised and edited the English translation. HS and XL approved the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Xin Lu or Huo-sheng Su.

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Xu, Ch., Liu, Xl., Burner, D.M. et al. Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of a Core Collection of Saccharum spontaneum L. in China. Sugar Tech 22, 76–88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-019-00761-6

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