Author Description

Increased crop vulnerability to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses can have a marked influence on the productivity of major crops, especially sugarcane (Saccharum spp.), thereby counteracting the potential to achieve the goal of "ZERO HUNGER" proposed by the FAO-UN. To cope with various stresses, plants have evolved complex rapid responses, but crop efficiency is still severely hampered. The prevailing alarming climate change scenario and future changing weather provide challenges for researchers to better understand plant responses, such as the activation of different signal cascades, followed by signal transduction, and triggering the respective gene expression in response to single or combined biotic or abiotic stresses, thus ultimately balancing the trade-off between plant growth and defense. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in crops, including sugarcane, in deciphering the roles of biomarker genes and signaling pathways that are involved in biotic and abiotic stress responses at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels. Therefore, this reprint will highlight the recent advances made in the utilization of different conventional and modern biotechnological strategies to better understand stress adaptation and tolerance mechanisms in sugarcanes.