Philsurin develops sugarcane database

Sugarcane breeders and researchers need not dig deep anymore into piles of index cards in search for vital information that they need in their scientific work.

All they have to do is refer to the Philippine Sugarcane Genetic Resources Data and Information Management System, or simply called Canepoint.

Produced by the Philippine Sugar Research Institute Foundation, Inc. (PHILSURIN), Canepoint contains complete information on sugarcane, arranged for easier search, retrieval, and navigation.

The database forms part of PHILSURIN’s activities under the CFC/ISO/20: Sugarcane Variety Improvement Project in Southeast Asia and the Pacific which was endorsed by the International Sugar Organization (ISO) and funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) of the United Nations.

The institute, headed by Director General Leon Arceo, began encoding raw data gathered from every characterization process at the University of the Phippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB) at the PHILSURIN experiment station in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, in 2003.

"If all sugar-producing countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Bangladesh will have a database similar to Canepoint, there will be easier distribution and exchange of sugarcane information and material," Arceo said.

UPLB-IPB researcher Nestor Altoveros, Canepoint project leader, reported that there are already 930 accessions available in the program and more than 8,100 photographs in the processing stage.

He said that the database has hyperlinked and detailed photographs of every sugarcane variety. Canepoint users simply click on the name of a particular sugarcane variety to have instant access to the plant’s photos which include stalk, bud, leaf sheath, inner and outer auricle, ligule, inflorescence, representative diakiness cell (its cell at the final stage of cell division), and the pedigree (lineage) of each sugarcane variety.

Altoveros said one of Canepoint’s key features is the query tool that allows sugarcane planters to search for a sugarcane variety with specific characteristics and obtain immediate results.

"The database user simply indicates the characteristics of the particular sugarcane variety that he is looking for. Immediately, a list of all sugarcane varieties having the desired traits will appear on the computer screen in answer to his query," he said. – RAF