Biochemical genetic markers in sugarcane.

Isozyme variation was used to identify biochemical markers of potential utility in sugarcane genetics and breeding. Electrophoretic polymorphism was surveyed for nine enzymes among 39 wild and noble sugarcane clones, belonging to the species most closely related to modern varieties. Up to 114 distinct bands showing presence versus absence type of variation were revealed and used for qualitative characterization of the materials. Multivariate analysis of the data isolated the Erianthus clone sampled and separated the Saccharum spontaneum clones from the S. robustum and S. officinarum clones; the latter two were not differentiated from one another. The analysis of self-progenies of a 2n=112 S. spontaneum and of a commercial variety showed examples of mono- and polyfactorial segregations. Within the progeny of the variety, co-segregation of two isozymes frequent in S. spontaneum led to them being assigned to a single chromosome initially contributed by a S. spontaneum donor. This illustrates how combined survey of ancestral species and segregation analysis in modern breeding materials should permit using the lack of interspecific cross-over to establish linkage groups in a sugarcane genome.