Sweet success: Sugarcane's complex genetic code cracked

Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants. Exploring sugarcane's genetic code could help researchers develop more resilient and productive crops, with implications for both sugar production and biofuels.

The research was conducted as part of the Community Science Program at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute , a DOE Office of Science user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . The study is published today in the journal"This was the most complicated genome sequence we've yet completed," said Jeremy Schmutz, Plant Program lead at the JGI and faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology."It shows how far we've come.

"When we sequenced the genome, we were able to fill a gap in the genetic sequence around brown rust disease," said Adam Healey, first author of the paper and a researcher at HudsonAlpha."There are hundreds of thousands of genes in the sugarcane genome, but it's only two genes, working together, that protect the plant from this pathogen. Across plants, there are only a handful of instances that we know of where protection works in a similar way.

Improving future varieties of sugarcane has potential applications in both agriculture and bioenergy. Enhancing how sugarcane produces sugar could increase the yield farmers get from their crops, providing more sugar from the same amount of growing space. Sugarcane is an important feedstock, or starting material, for producing biofuels, particularly ethanol, and other bioproducts.

A 30-year-old genetic mystery has been solved. It has previously been established that touch can trigger stress reactions in plants. However, the molecular models for explaining this process have ...

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