Emmerson Rodrigues de Moraes
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Ariel Santivañez Aguilar
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Daniel Lucas Magalhães Machado
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Antônio Marcos Diniz Campos
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Simone Abreu Asmar
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...
Sugarcane is cultivated in almost all Brazilian agricultural regions, Brazil being the world's largest
producer, which requires breeding programs to create more productive and efficient varieties
adapted to each region. In sugarcane breeding programs there is a need, under certain
circumstances, to multiply the selected material rapidly. In this scenario, micropropagation
appears as an alternative to the conventional process of vegetative propagation through stalks.
The objective of this review was to describe the scenario on micropropagation research in
sugarcane, such as meristem culture, sugarcane calli, somatic embryogenesis, in vitro germplasm
conservation and cryopreservation. It has been observed in the literature that there is a wide
spectrum of use for the numerous and well established protocols for the in vitro manipulation of
sugarcane morphogenesis. The prospect of producing new features via induction of somaclonal
variation and in vitro experimentation for pest and disease tolerance has not yet been extensively
explored. While benefits of minimal growth are recognized in in vitro germplasm conservation of
elite sugarcane cultivars, and all positive potential of this technique and cryopreservation may still
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Colloquium Agrariae, vol. 13, n. Especial, Jan–Jun, 2017, p. 322-338 ISSN: 1809-8215. DOI: 10.5747/ca.2017.v13.nesp.000237
be expanded. On the other hand, techniques in the mass production of superior and pathogenfree
genotypes have already been integrated in many sugarcane breeding programs.