Whip smut of sugarcane is the most serious and widely spread disease of sugarcane and causes a significant reduction in cane quantity and quality. The severity of this disease often depends on the pathogen races, environmental conditions, cultivar genotype and the interaction among these three factors. Under optimum climatic conditions, this disease has the potential to cause total crop failure. Resistance screening is an ongoing process due to the variability among smut pathogen isolates. Multiple races and mutation ability of smut pathogen makes the breeding task more complex. A number of studies on various aspects of the disease epidemiology and management have been published. Due to many overlapping characteristics within the species complex, there is a dearth of information on early detection and strategies to control the smut pathogen. Furthermore, there is a need to coordinate these findings to expedite its research and control. In this paper, we summarize the disease etiology, especially disease impact on the qualitative and quantitative parameters of sugarcane. We also gathered research progress on molecular-based detection and available information on genetic variability in S.scitamineum. The research on the set of management options needed to effectively cope with the disease are reviewed herein. The present review is expected to be helpful for the further investigation on smut resistance in sugarcane.

Whip smut disease of sugarcane, caused bySporisorium scitamineum, is considered one of the main constraints in the successful cultivation of sugarcane. The pathogen infection can decrease the quantity and quality of the produce. Cultivation of resistant varieties is the most feasible strategy to combat the harms of this devastating disease. Development of varieties having disease-resistance together with improved important traits such as brix, pol, purity, CSS, and low fiber contents are desirable. Therefore, we documented the variances in quality traits of 104 sugarcane cultivars under disease pressure in split-plot design with 6 replications. The split ANOVA revealed a highly significant impact (p4.032) in brix, pol, purity, and CSS of more than 40% of the cultivars used, as compared to the uninoculated ones. On the other hand, the smut infection caused a highly significant (t>4.032) increase in fiber percentage of 41 cultivars. We found significant positive correlations between smut rating and reduction of brix, pol, purity, and CSS contents. The cultivars that were caught with greater disease severity, compromised a higher reduction of their useful contents. Similarly, a significant positive correlation was found between increased fiber percent and smut rating. Remarkably, cultivars that showed immune reactions to whip smut disease were not statistically different from uninoculated ones in brix, pol, purity, CSS, and fiber contents. Variable effects of whip smut infection to quality parameters of different cultivars depict the importance of further improvement through breeding programs.