Identification of Key Factors Applicable in Rapid Evaluation of Sugarcane Ratooning Ability
Ratooning ability is a key trait in sugarcane breeding.But the high effective evaluation of ratooning ability is still a difficulty because of the long growth period of sugarcane.This study involved the utilization of 212 sugarcane germplasm resources gathered from diverse countries and regions.A rapid-cycled evaluation of sugarcane ratooning ability was performed in Longan city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Kaiyuan city of Yunnan province,respectively.The assessment focused on the emergence rate of seedlings and aboveground stalk biomass during two seasons.The ratooning ability of sugarcane is greatly affected by environmental conditions,and extremely significant differences were found among four ratooning indexes at two field sites,and highly significant positive correlation were detected among theses indexes.Principal component analysis shows that only one principal component was extracted for both experimental sites,whose contribution rate reach to 80.25%in Kaiyuan site and 62.68%in Longan site.By using cluster analysis method,212 germplasm resources were divided into 5 clusters.Cluster Ⅰ contained 9 materials,each index for ratooning ability of them performed the highest level,belonging to the strongest ratooning ability germplasm resources.There were 38 materials belonged to cluster Ⅱ and cluster Ⅲ with higher level performance in indexes of ratooning ability.They could be as stronger ratooning germplasm resources to be used in future breeding plans.The rest 165 materials grouped into cluster Ⅳ and cluster V as weak ratooning ability clones.Based on above analyses,it is of great significance for the sustainable development of the sugarcane industry to utilize the elite materials to improve the ratooning ability of varieties.