The transcriptional landscape and co-expression networks of sugarcane

Abstract

The interest in bioenergy crops, such as those belonging to the Saccharinae subtribe, has increased due to improvements in technologies related to the production of cellulosic bioethanol. In this scenario, sugarcane stands out as the world's leading biomass crop with vast potential to mitigate climate change without affecting food security. Hybrids obtained through the cross-breeding of commercial varieties of sugarcane with ancestral species, such as Saccharum spontaneum, have allowed obtaining genotypes characterized by high fiber content, moderate brix levels, fine stalks and higher tillering rate - the energy cane. Understanding the flow of biological information underlying carbon partitioning is imperative for the establishment of reliable breeding strategies. To this end, we are interested in integrating physiology, regulatory elements, genomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data from sugarcane towards a systems biology approach. Particularly, in this project, we aim unravel the transcriptome landscape of hybrid genotypes contrasting for biomass and explore co-expression networks to mine important candidates that plays important roles in the sugar/energy cane carbon metabolism.