Sugarcane Hybrid Created to Grow at Colder Temperatures

Imagine sugarcane that doesn't have to be grown in the south. Researchers may have managed just that. They've developed chill-tolerant hybrid sugarcane that can grow at lower temperatures.

Researchers have long known of hybrid sugarcanes that were developed in the 1980s and have been hardier in cooler climes. Until now, though, no one had tested whether these "miscanes" actually photosynthesize and continue to grow when the thermometer dips.

In this latest study, the researchers looked at two miscanes, which were the offspring of crosses between sugarcane and a hardy, cold-tolerant grass. They found that unlike tropical sugarcanes, the miscanes are just as productive in the cool spring and autumn as in the heat of summer. It also sprouts earlier than corn in the spring and its leaves stay green and active well into the autumn.

"Typically, with sugarcane, when you lower the temperature to 10 or even 14 degree Celsius, there is very little growth or no growth, and leaves lose their ability to conduct photosynthesis," said Katarzyna, Glowacka, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The plants will not die, but they don't grow."

The researchers exposed the miscanes to 10 days of 10-degree Celsius conditions in the lab. They measured the rate of photosynthesis, and then raised the temperatures again to 25 degrees Celsius. The researchers found that the photosynthesis rebounded in the miscanes, which means that the gains in chill-tolerance did not blunt the productivity of the plant.

"There are two different aspects of cold tolerance," said Erik Sacks, who led the research. "Surviving over the winter is one thing, but we also need the plants to be productive at the beginning of the season and at the end of the season in a more northern-or higher altitude-environment where it's colder, because the season is shorter as you go further north."

In this case, the miscanes could be grown for sugar and could be productive in more areas. In fact, the new research shows that sugarcane can be made more chill-tolerant without losses in productivity.

The findings are published in the journal Global Change Biology: Bioenergy.

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