In-vitro mutagenesis Approaches for Flowering Control in Sugarcane – A Review

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is one of the important commercial crops grown globally as a source of raw material for wide range of sugar and bio-energy industries. Crop being a member of family Poaceae, terminates its growth by flowering (arrowing). The process of flowering is highly complex process and is mediated by temperature, photoperiod, humidity, altitude and latitude besides crop genetic makeup. Though flowering is crucial for crop improvement programmes, uncontrolled flowering under commercial cultivation poses a serious problem for sugarcane farmers and millers with a considerable loss in yield and quality. Therefore, in order to device sugarcane genotype with no flowering habit enormous efforts have been made through various approaches, among them mutagenesis is one such approach wherein propagation materials will be exposed to chemicals or radiation in order to bring desirable traits. This technique looks to be the prominent crop improvement strategy for sugarcane. Hence, in this paper review we brought together the earlier work done in the field of mutation breeding in devising non-flowering sugarcane genotypes and their impacts on commercial sugarcane production.