Sugarcane in vitro culture technology: Opportunities for Kenyas sugar industry

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is one of the most important crops in Kenya and has wide range of economic importance. The sugar industry contributes up to 15% to the country's agricultural gross domestic product and an estimated 25% of the population depends on the industry for their livelihood. However, the industry has been facing several challenges including declining yields due to use of poor quality planting materials. There is an increasing pressure to enhance the productivity of sugarcane in order to sustain profitable sugar industries in Kenya, while there are several diseases attacking sugarcane and reducing its quality. Seed multiplication of newly released varieties of sugarcane is one of the major constraints in Kenya as it takes 6-7 years to produce sufficient quantity of improved seed material. In vitro culture offers a practical and fast method for mass propagation of disease-free clonal materials. Successful protocols for shoot tip culture, callus culture, embryo culture, virus free plant production and somatic embryogenesis have already been established. Thus, in vitro technology can be used to enhance productivity of sugarcane in Kenya. Despite several advantages of applying micro-propagation technique in sugarcane such as quick multiplication of newly released varieties, rejuvenation of old deteriorated varieties; production of disease free seed; easy transportation of seed material; elimination of viruses; high cane productivity and sugar yield etc., this technique is not gaining popularity up to the desired extent. There are several constraints like the high cost of production and appearance of some variants in micropropagated population among others. The present article describes the status, challenges and opportunities of in vitro technology for the sugar industry in Kenya. Though, some problems have now been resolved to considerable extents which have been described in this review however, some constraints still require intensive research work to be resolved so that a safe and efficient exploitation of this technique can be ensured in sugarcane seed production programmes for enhanced yields and quality.

DNA methylation in sugarcane somaclonal variants assessed through methylation-sensitive amplified polymorphism

“…The sugarcane-breeding programs are becoming dependent on tissue culture for its support, such as, growing callus for genetic transformation, large-scale multiplication of promising cultivars, among others (Joyce et al, 2014;Lal et al, 2015;Wekesa et al, 2015;Rastogi et al, 2015). The use of tissue culture to produce clonally propagated plants is very advantageous as it allows the production of pathogen-free plants in a large scale multiplication at a low cost and in a reduced working space (Lal et al, 2015).…”

Production of phenolics and flavonoids with antioxidant evaluations of Brunfelsia pauciflora (Cham. &Schltdl.) Benth. through in vitro propagated cultures.

“…Plant tissue cultures are considered as easy and rapid mass multiplication of diseases-free plants, large-scale revegetation, and biodiversity preservation [10]. Moreover, it is a way of augmenting the production of secondary metabolites which can be larger than that of the mother plants [11].…”