A new method of in vitro interaction between cell suspension and Cf-elicitor was employed to understand red rot resistance in sugarcane. RT-PCR, differential display (DD)-RT-PCR, RACE-PCR, semi-quantitative RT-PCR and different bioinformatic tools were used to identify and characterize the defense related transcripts. In DD-RT-PCR, many differentially expressed transcripts were identified and functionally grouped. Important candidate genes were identified through RACE-PCR and their functional domains were characterized. Sugarcane chitinase was characterized as a class IV chitinase....