Nuclear Cytoplasmic Interactions in Hybrids of Saccharum

Sugarcane is an important agro-industrial crop cultivated for sugar, ethanol and fibre. Sugarcane varieties are interspecific hybrids involving Saccharum officinarum cytoplasm and due to narrow cytoplasmic diversity its susceptibility to diseases and stress factors is high. Wild related species S. spontaneum and Erianthus species are good candidates for transfer of cytoplasm to sugarcane. In the present study E. arundinaceus × S. spontaneum hybrid crossed with sugarcane were with Erianthus cytoplasm. S. spontaneum × E. arundinaceus hybrids further crossed with sugarcane were having S. spontaneum cytoplasm. Rare occurrence of S. officinarum cytoplasm in these hybrids further crossed with sugarcane was due to paternal transmission of the cytoplasmic genomes was found. Pistillody observed in S. spontaneum × E. arundinaceus and S. officinarum × E. arundinaceus hybrids and their derivatives by further crossing with E. arundinaceus or sugarcane commercial hybrids was found as the most visible manifestation of the nuclear cytoplasmic interactions.