From the Editor
The Balance Between Tradition and Innovation
Luis Ayala
Sugarcane is, by weight, the world’s largest crop. Despite this commanding volume, until recently, it lacked a complete reference genome sequence, due to the fact that sugarcane also has one of the most complex genomes in the plant kingdom! This genetic complexity is a result of the extreme level of polyploidy involved (the heritable condition of possessing more than two complete sets of chromosomes). The same complexity, however, has in recent years attracted increased attention from the scientific community, so more sugarcane research has been made in the last 4 years than in the previous 40!
Despite the total volume harvested, not all of it ends up being processed into granulated sugar and molasses: much of it is actually crushed, fermented and distilled to directly produce bio-fuel, in the form of ethanol.
As the world’s fuel demands increase, there is a lot of pressure being put on plant scientists to develop new varieties of cane that will produce even higher yields of sugar and that will tolerate the changing climatic conditions. But the practice of selecting or inter-breeding varieties for increased yields is not new: it has been carried out for the past two centuries! The varieties of cane originally introduced to the new world are mostly nonexistent now, their echoes are found only in remote areas not touched by industrialized, modern sugar producers. These heirloom varieties still hold in their DNA the ancient keys to millions of years of insect and weather resistance, as well as other traits that may be of value to future growers.
On page 25 we feature the soon-to-be-published work of Professor Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, which exemplifies the importance of preserving sugarcane’s ethnobotanical past.
Scientific research, however, rarely survives without assistance from government institutions or income from the private sector, so it pleases me immensely to see Hawaiian craft distilleries committed to identifying, protecting and perpetuating these heirloom canes (see this month’s Exclusive Interview, page 52).
Cheers,
Luis Ayala,
Editor and Publisher