Abstract

Sugarcane is an important agro-industrial crop cultivated for sugar and other by-products. The future of sustainable agriculture will rely on the integration of biotechnology with traditional agricultural practices. Diseases can be caused by a variety of plant pathogens including fungi, others and their management requires the use of techniques in transgenic technology, molecular biology, and genetics. These include: genes that express proteins, peptides, or antimicrobial compounds that are directly toxic to pathogens or that reduce their growth in situ; gene products that directly inhibit pathogen virulence products or enhance plant structural defense genes, that directly or indirectly activate general plant defense responses; and resistance genes involved in the hypersensitive response and in the interactions with a virulence factors. This chapter discusses the key recent approaches to manage different pathogens within the context of recent developments in biotechnology and plant science.

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