Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals

Food system innovations will be instrumental to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, major innovation breakthroughs can trigger profound and disruptive changes, leading to simultaneous and interlinked reconfigurations of multiple parts of the global food system. The emergence of new technologies or social solutions, therefore, have very different impact profiles, with favourable consequences for some SDGs and unintended adverse side-effects for others. Stand-alone innovations seldom achieve positive outcomes over multiple sustainability dimensions. Instead, they should be embedded as part of systemic changes that facilitate the implementation of the SDGs. Emerging trade-offs need to be intentionally addressed to achieve true sustainability, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality in its many forms, social justice, and strong institutions, which remain challenging. Trade-offs with undesirable consequences are manageable through the development of well planned transition pathways, careful monitoring of key indicators, and through the implementation of transparent science targets at the local level

Reassessing waterlogging: methods to compare the response of different sugarcane genotypes

Many studies have been conducted to determine the effects of waterlogging on sugarcane using the depth of the water table from the soil surface as the measure of waterlogging. However, the range of depths reported to affect sugarcane has created confusion. The wide range of depths reported is likely to be due to the different cultivars and soils used, and the different environmental conditions experienced. A system using the level of dissolved oxygen as the measure of waterlogging has been developed. This has enabled comparisons of waterlogging tolerance to be made between sugarcane cultivars and related genotypes. Two ways of testing the response to levels of dissolved oxygen were developed. The first assayed germination at different levels of dissolved oxygen, the second, the ability to germinate after different lengths of exposure to 2 mg/L dissolved oxygen. Differences in response to levels of dissolved oxygen were found. For cultivars tested, there was only a 50% probability of a bud germinating and growing at a dissolved oxygen concentration of 5.3 mg/L. Measurements of the level of dissolved oxygen in waterlogged sugarcane fields showed levels below 2 mg/L. Consequently, the bud's ability to survive periods at these low oxygen concentrations is likely to be more important. Differences in the duration that buds can survive exposure to low dissolved oxygen have been shown for selected sugarcane cultivars and Saccharum spontaneum genotypes. The commercial cultivars tested had no probability of germination and growth after 7 days of exposure to low dissolved oxygen levels. However, one of the S. spontaneum genotypes had buds that were able to germinate and grow after 7 days of exposure. The genotype SES297A had 41% probability of germination and growth after 7 days of exposure and remarkably 11% probability of germination and growth after 11 days of exposure. The systems developed enable the differences found between genotypes to be investigated further. Identification of the differences and their basis could lead to strategies being developed to incorporate this trait of tolerating low oxygen conditions into parental material in breeding programs

Environmental stimuli promoting sucker initiation in sugarcane

The presence of suckers, late-formed tillers, in mature sugarcane crops reduces the sugar concentration of harvested material to the detriment of profitability. The amount of suckering varies with cultivar and season. However, the environmental stimuli promoting suckering, i.e. the number of suckers, are not understood. This paper describes the effects on suckering of increasing soil moisture, nitrogen, and the level of light penetrating the canopy. Light was manipulated by plant spacing or removal of dead leaf from mature stalks. Increased nitrogen availability late in the crop's growth cycle promoted suckering, even in a cultivar of low suckering propensity. Higher levels of nitrogen applied at the beginning of the growing season had inconsistent effects, possibly due to variation in rainfall. Increased soil moisture late in the growing season greatly increased suckering and also had a positive effect when combined with high levels of nitrogen. The effect of plant spacing on sucker number was only significant in the plant crop, and then only when expressed as sucker number per mature stalk. Removal of dead leaves had a significant effect on suckering at one site but not another. In all cases, higher plant spacing and dead leaf removal increased light levels recorded under the canopy. The quality and quantity of light required to promote suckering still remain unknown, as does the means by which the plant perceives the light stimuli. The differences in suckering between the plant and ratoon crops suggested that not all stimuli were tested in the treatments applied, or that other factors negated stimuli that were present or that suckering is inherently more prevalent in ratoon crops. All cultivars tested responded similarly to the environmental stimuli that produced a significant effect

Identifying the Risks of Transgene Escape from Sugarcane Crops to Related Species, with Particular Reference to Saccharum spontaneum in Australia

Sugarcane is a major crop of tropical and sub-tropical climates. Modern cultivars are hybrids of several Saccharum species. Many attempts have been made to make intergeneric crosses to increase the diversity of germplasm available for breeding. Currently methods of incorporating new traits through genetic manipulation are also being researched. A review of the attempts by breeders to make hybridisations with sugarcane has been performed to determine the likelihood of spontaneous transfer of a transgene to a range of other species. When combined with the list of sexually compatible species growing outside of cultivation in Australia, Saccharum spontaneum L. was considered to be the most likely to spontaneously hybridise with commercial sugarcane. Using a combination of local knowledge and herbarium samples, S. spontaneum has been documented at five previously unpublished locations in Australia. Analysis of the DNA of plants growing at each of these locations, by molecular markers, showed vegetative propagation at three sites, predominantly vegetative propagation at a fourth and the presence of a more diverse set of plants at the fifth. At the latter location there may have been multiple introductions, interbreeding between clones or both. An analysis of both pollen and seed viability from these plants would discriminate between these options and determine whether S. spontaneum is interbreeding with commercial sugarcane

Characterisation of alleles of the sucrose phosphate synthase gene family in sugarcane and their association with sugar-related traits

Sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) is a key enzyme in the production of sucrose. Five SPS gene families have been identified in monocotyledonous plants including sugarcane. Using SPS family-specific primers to four of the five families (we had previously characterised the fifth gene family), an approximately 400-nt region was amplified from the parents of a sugarcane mapping population, namely the cultivar Q165 and a S. officinarum line IJ76-514. Alignment of the sequences from both parents suggested from one to three genes per SPS gene family, with variable numbers of alleles per gene. Single-dose (SD) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in at least one allele from each SPS gene family and mapped in Q165. For gene families SPS I–IV, SNPs from different alleles in each gene family mapped to different linkage groups within the same homology group (HG), suggesting a single gene per gene family, or multiple genes at a single locus. These map locations were syntenic with SPS gene family locations in sorghum. Two SNPs from different alleles in gene family SPS V were mapped to two different HGs, suggesting two genes in this family; one of the map locations was syntenic with the location of SPS V in sorghum. QTL analysis for sugar-related traits was undertaken with the SD and double-dose SNP markers. SNPs from SPS gene family IV were strongly associated with sugar-related traits, while SNPs from other gene families were associated with agronomic traits, such as stalk weight, diameter, and number. This study provides insight into the evolution of this important polyploid crop as well as highlights the importance of this gene family to sugar production in sugarcane

Plastome phylogenomics of sugarcane and relatives confirms the segregation of the genus Tripidium (Poaceae: Andropogoneae)

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the most important crops inthe world and a major source of sugar for human consumption. Despite this immense value, the circumscription of the genus Saccharum is complex, contentious, and largely unresolved. Saccharum is accepted in a broad sense by some authors or split into various genera such as Erianthus and Tripidium. A plastome phylogenomic analysis of sugarcane and relatives was performed in order to investigate generic delimitation, with emphasis on Tripidium (= Erianthus sect. Ripidium). Our plastome phylogenomics clearly demonstrates that Saccharum s.l. is polyphyletic and Tripidium (distributed in Old World) belongs to a distinct lineage from Saccharum s.s. (Old World) and Erianthus s.s. (= Erianthus sect. Erianthus, New World). Therefore, the present analysis confirms the recognition of Tripidium as a distinct genus from Saccharum and Erianthus, which is also supported by morphology and nuclear markers. The circumscription of Erianthus s.s. remains unclear since our plastome phylogenomics is consistent with either considering it as a distinct genus or including it in Saccharum. Better understanding of the evolutionary relationships of sugarcane and relatives may be useful for the selection of potential taxa for interspecific and intergeneric crosses in the genetic improvement of sugarcane. A taxonomic treatment of the six species of Tripidium is also presented, including descriptions, illustrations, data on geographical distribution, and three new nomenclatural combinations.Fil: Welker, Cassiano A. D.. Universidade Federal de Uberlândia; BrasilFil: McKain, Michael R.. University of Alabama at Birmingahm; Estados UnidosFil: Vorontsova, Maria S.. Royal Botanic Gardens; Reino UnidoFil: Peichoto, Myriam Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Kellogg, Elizabeth Anne. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center; Estados Unido