IMPLEMENTATION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED SUGARCANE-THE NEED FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION

Many traits such as pest resistance, increased sucrose content and the production of new industrial materials are being investigated for incorporation into sugarcane through genetic modification (GM). While the research has made much progress and although we are not yet ready to deploy GM cultivars, consideration of what is required to introduce GM sugarcane cultivars into the Australian sugar industry is timely. With 21 countries growing 90 million ha of GM crops, the technology is widely adopted on a global scale. Indeed many of our competitors are countries that have adopted other GM crops. In 2006, the first commercial planting of transgenic sugar beet was harvested. The sugar beet contained a herbicide resistance gene. However, before GM sugarcane can be adopted, a range of industry, regulatory, and marketing related issues have to be tackled. Some of these issues are generic to the technology and others will be dependant upon the modification made. This paper describes some recent observations that indicate the need for a greater understanding of the reproductive biology of sugarcane in order to assess the potential environmental risks of introducing GM sugarcane. This will allow regulators to make evidencebased decisions and researchers to develop GM cultivars in a way that will minimise or avoid any risks found.