Sugarcane Biotechnology Challenges And Prospects

This book provides exhaustive information on several recent technologies that are employed for sugarcane improvement through biotechnology and will be of great interest to plant scientists, biotechnologists, molecular biologists and breeders who work on sugarcane crop. Topics discussed in this volume include genomics and transcriptomics, transgenic sugarcane for trait improvement, potential candidate promoters, new strategies for transformation, molecular farming, sugarcane as biofuel, chloroplast transformation, and genome editing.

Sugarcane exhibits all the major characteristics of a promising bioenergy crop including high biomass yield, C4 photosynthetic system, perennial nature, and ratooning ability. Being the largest agricultural commodity of the world with respect to total production, sugarcane biomass is abundantly available. Brazil has already become a sugarcane biofuels centered economy while Thailand, Colombia, and South Africa are also significantly exploiting this energy source. Other major cane producers include India, China, Pakistan, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, and the United States. It has been projected that sugarcane biofuels will be playing extremely important role in world’s energy matrix in recent future. This book analyzes the significance, applications, achievements, and future avenues of biofuels and bioenergy production from sugarcane, in top cane growing countries around the globe. Moreover, we also evaluate the barriers and areas of improvement for targeting efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective biofuels from sugarcane to meet the world’s energy needs and combat the climate change.

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is considered one of the major bioenergy crops grown globally. Thus, sugarcane research to improve sustainable production worldwide is a vital task of the scientific community, to address the increasing demands and needs for their products, especially biofuels. In this context, this book covers the most recent research areas related to sugarcane production and its applications. It is composed of 14 chapters, divided into 5 sections that highlight fundamental insights into the current research and technology on this crop. Sugarcane: Technology and Research intends to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview in technology, production, and applied and basic research of this bioenergy species, approaching the latest developments on varied topics related to this crop.

This book is a collection of chapters concerning the use of biomass for the sustainable production of energy and chemicals–an important goal that will help decrease the production of greenhouse gases to help mitigate global warming, provide energy security in the face of dwindling petroleum reserves, improve balance of payment problems and spur local economic development. Clearly there are ways to save energy that need to be encouraged more. These include more use of energy sources such as, among others, manure in anaerobic digesters, waste wood in forests as fuel or feedstock for cellulosic ethanol, and conservation reserve program (CRP) land crops that are presently unused in the US. The use of biofuels is not new; Rudolf Diesel used peanut oil as fuel in the ?rst engines he developed (Chap. 8), and ethanol was used in the early 1900s in the US as automobile fuel [Songstad et al. (2009) Historical perspective of biofuels: learning from the past to rediscover the future. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 45:189–192). Brazil now produces enough sugar cane ethanol to make up about 50% of its transportation fuel needs (Chap. 4). The next big thing will be cellulosic ethanol. At present, there is also the use of Miscanthus x giganteous as fuel for power plants in the UK (Chap. 2), bagasse (sugar cane waste) to power sugar cane mills (Chap. 4), and waste wood and sawdust to power sawmills (Chap. 7).

In this book, the information encompasses various researchable biotechnology aspects of sugarcane, its genomic structure, diversity, comparative and structural genomics, data mining, etc. This book explores both the theoretical and practical aspects of sugarcane crops, focusing on innovative processes. This book argues in favor of developing an integrated research and development system to strengthen the research and development capabilities of all the areas of sugarcane. Further, it covers the recent trends of sugarcane biotechnology, especially in the next-generation sequencing (NGS) era. This book will be very useful for professors and scientists who are working in the area of sugarcane crops by using molecular biology and bioinformatics. It is also useful for students to use as a reference for their classes or thesis projects. Key features: • Discusses an integral part of molecular biology and pivotal tools for molecular breeding; enables breeders to design cost-effective and efficient breeding strategies for sugarcane • Discusses the harnessing genomics technologies for genetic engineering and pathogen characterization and diagnosis of sugarcane • Provides new examples and problems, added where needed • Provides insight from contributors drawn from around the globe

Climate change is one of the major challenges of modern times. Its impacts are manifold and vary from sea level rise (especially relevant to those living in coastal areas), to the increased frequency of extreme events such as cyclones and storm surges, which not only poses problems to property and infrastructure, but also to human health. Climate change is also associated with damages to the physical and natural environment, as well as to biodiversity. According to the 5th Assessment Report produced by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), many geographical regions across the world are moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change, whose impacts may be further exacerbated by other human-induced pressures. The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better and more holistic understanding of how climate change affects countries and regions on the one hand, but also on how the many problems it causes may be managed on the other, vis-a-vis a better ability to adapt. There is also a perceived need to showcase successful examples of how to duly address and manage the many social, economic and political problems posed by climate change around the world, in order to replicate and even upscale the successful ones. It is against this background that the Handbook of Climate Change Management has been produced. It contains papers prepared by scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects, and working with communities across all geographical regions. The Handbook focuses on "Research, Leadership, Transformation", meaning that it serves the purpose of showcasing the role these key areas play in respect of applied research, field projects and best practices to foster climate change adaptation worldwide.

Physiology of Sugarcane looks at the development of a suite of well-established and developing biofuels derived from sugarcane and cane-based co-products, such as bagasse. Chapters provide broad-ranging coverage of sugarcane biology, biotechnological advances, and breakthroughs in production and processing techniques. This single volume resource brings together essential information to researchers and industry personnel interested in utilizing and developing new fuels and bioproducts derived from cane crops.

This book provides a precise and meticulous overview of the technology of developing energy cane. It highlights how technology has transformed the opinion of growers to cultivate sugarcane from an agronomic to a purpose-grown crop. Chapters in this book provide essentials for developing sugarcane for high-sugar contents, bioethanol, and biodiesel to meet the emerging demands of the world.