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Forty three Saccharum spontaneum accessions were evaluated using eighteen drought tolerance related traits. The Euclidean based dendrogram divided the accessions into three different clusters. Euclidean distances ranged from 7.65 to 140.23. The maximum distance was reported between the accessions IND 99-849 and IND03-1247. From the PCA analysis, it is observed that 47.03% of the total variation was accounted by the first two principal components. The variables factor map visualized that stalk height at 90 days and stalk height during stress were the two important variables contributing maximum to the total variation. In the case of Euclidean distance based clustering cluster I included drought tolerant accessions while it was cluster II and III for PCA based clustering accessions viz., IND 99-847, IND 08-1500, IND 08-1491, IND 99-984, IND 02-1186 etc. were identified as promising under drought condition. These accessions can be utilized in the sugarcane improvement programmes for abiotic stress tolerance. The understanding of genetic diversity present in germplasm is important for their proper utilization, management and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of promising genotypes in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) breeding is achieved by multi-stage evaluation initiated by evaluation of thousands of seedlings derived from true seed and then vegetatively propagated. Family selection for cane yield in ground nursery is done through weighing cane yield / plot, which is laborious and expensive. In recent times, various statistical tools have been applied for overcoming the constraints in family selection at single stool stage. A population of 1,800 seedlings derived from fifteen bi-parental crosses involving Indian Co canes and Erianthus introgressed hybrids were evaluated in seedling stage. A subset comprised of 450 clones selected from the single stool stage was evaluated in the firs clonal trial. Random Coefficient Model (RCM)was employed to predict the promising families contributing a greater number of high yielding clones using the cane yield data recorded in the early stages of selection viz., single stool and first clonal crop stages. The hybrids of the five elite parental combinations viz., Co 86011 x CoT 8201, Co 8371 x Co 86011, Co 86002 x CoC 671, Co 62198 x Co 8353 and GU04(28) E02 self x Co 0314 identified through RCM analysis showed an improvement of 41.86 % higher cane yield than the clones in the average families (Co 85002 x Co 8209, CoM 0265 x Co 0314, Co 8371 x Co 94008, Co 11015 x Co 775 andGU04 (50) RE6 x Co 94008). The positive slope values estimated by the RCM method for the superior crosses highly correlated with the proportion of elite cane yielding clones in the plant crop trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugarcane rust incited by Puccinia melanocephala (brown rust) and P. kuehnii (orange rust) becomes very severe under warm, moist climatic conditions. Though there were methods to screen rust resistance under artificial conditions where rust is prevalent, there is no method to screen the rust resistance in a place where rust occurrence is not regular and severe. To overcome this problem, a simple method was devised to screen sugarcane leaves challenged with rust uredospores and maintaining the setup under optimum relative humidity and temperature for 15-20 days for identifying the rust resistant sugarcane clones. This method of rust screening is simple and easy, fast and reliable and many clones can be screened in short period of 20 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]