BREEDING FOR SUGARCANE SMUT RESISTANCE IN AUSTRALIA AND INDUSTRY RESPONSE: 2006–2011

摘要

BSES LIMITED COMMENCED screening Australian varieties for resistance to sugarcanesmut in Indonesia in 1998, a few months after the disease was found in the Ord RiverIrrigation Area (ORIA) of Western Australia. Data from these screening programsprovided important information on susceptibility of Australian commercial varieties tosmut. After detection of smut in Queensland in 2006, BSES launched a large smutscreeningprogram to accelerate the development of resistant varieties. Since then,approximately 10,000 clones from various stages of selection programs have beenscreened for smut-resistance. The proportion of resistant clones in the BSES breedingprogram increased from 40% to 68% since 2007. A strategy was developed to increasethe number of resistant clones in the breeding program by not making crosses with amid-parent smut rating greater than 6.5. The replacement of smut-susceptible varietiesby resistant and intermediate varieties in commercial production increased significantlyin all regions except New South Wales. The regional increase in production fromresistant and intermediate varieties was 24% to 64% in Northern, <10% to 75% inHerbert, 65% to 95% in Burdekin, 25% to 72% in Central, and 21% to 81% in Southernregions. Four smut-resistant to intermediate varieties are dominant in most of theQueensland cane growing areas, accounting for approximately 70% of harvest. They areQ208 (28%), KQ228 (18%), Q200 (10%) and Q183 (9.5%). Already a largenumber of new smut-resistant productive varieties are available to the industry, andthese should help to minimise the losses of production due to sugarcane smut.