PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF YCS IN SUGARCANE PLANTS (POSTER)

ONE OF THE main physiological effects of Yellow Leaf Syndrome (YCS) is the accumulation of starch in mature leaves of sugarcane plants. This is followed by yellowing and then complete death of the leaf. Our previous work described starch accumulation in affected stalks, both between leaves of different ages within a stalk, as well as within regions of the same leaf of the plant. We also showed that this hyper-accumulation of starch did not occur in either diseased or naturally senescing leaves in the field. One possible hypothesis for this accumulation could be that translocation of assimilates is interrupted due to a blockage at the sink and/or source leaves and/or within the stalk. The uptake and movement of dyes within the plant was studied to help understand translocation in YCS affected plants. Our results showed that both uptake and movement of dyes in YCS plants was reduced and will be discussed in this paper.