ABSTRACT

Sugarcane is one of the world's major cash crops, cultivated in more than 100 countries. It is the source of ~70% of the world's sugar and plays an important role in improving the socioeconomic status of human society in both developed and developing countries. Improvement in sugarcane, a highly polyploid and frequently aneuploid plant, is hindered due to complex genome, narrow gene pool, low fuzz viability, and long breeding process. Biotechnological strategies such as marker-assisted selection breeding, exploitation of somaclonal variation, and transgenic technology have a great potential to tackle these limitations and lead to the development of improved sugarcane cultivars. In this chapter, the role of these biotechnological methods for the development of improved sugarcane cultivars was discussed. This chapter also highlights stress-tolerant sugarcane cultivars that have been developed successfully through these tools and commercialized so far. In addition, the role and future perspective of advanced breeding technologies have been discussed.