15-13: Sugarcane as an alternate source of bioenergy developed through tissue culture technique

India is the largest producer of cane and sugar in the world; however the cane and sugar production per unit area is lower than several other cane producing countries. Thus sugarcane production offers continuing challenge to the development of high yielding high sugared and disease resistant clones.Studies were carried out for rapid micropropagation of three elite sugarcane varieties CoS 96258, CoS 99259 and CoS 98259. The explants were surface sterilized with 70% ethanol for 10 second and 0.1% HgCl₂ for 8 minutes. The cultures were initiated by inoculating them on MS medium containing 1.0 mg/l Kinetin along with 0.1 mg/l GA3. Multiplication of the cultures was obtained by using BAP and Kinetin various combinations and concentrations in MS medium. The optimum multiplication for variety CoS 96258 was obtained at 1.5 mg/l BAP, 0.5 mg/l Kin with 16.5 cm shoot length, 11 number of tillers and 32 number of leaves per plant. Similarly optimum multiplication for variety CoS99259 was obtained at 1.0 mg/l BAP and 0.5 mg/l Kin, with a maximum of 8.5 cm shoot length, 7 number of tillers and 24 number of leaves. Best multiplication rate for variety CoS 98259 was observed at 1.0 mg/l BAP and 0.1 mg/l Kin with a maximum of 12 cm shoot length, 6 number of tillers and 18 leaves per plant. Rooting of the plantlets was obtained on half strength MS medium containing 6% sucrose and various concentrations of IBA.