Heritable Effect of Plant Water Availability Conditions on Restoration of Male Fertility in the “9E” CMS-Inducing Cytoplasm of Sorghum

Elkonin, L.A. and Tsvetova, M.I. (2012) Heritable Effect of Plant Water Availability Conditions on Restoration of Male Fertility in the “9E” CMS-Inducing Cytoplasm of Sorghum. Frontiers in Plant Science, 3 (91). pp. 1-11.

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Abstract

Heritable changes of phenotype arising in plant ontogenesis by the influence of environmental factors belong to the most intriguing genetic phenomena. An unusual inheritance pattern was detected during examination of male fertility restoration in the CMS-inducing “9E” type cytoplasm of sorghum: Rf-genes were functional in self-pollinated progeny of F1 hybrids yet were either not expressed or poorly expressed in backcrosses of these hybrids to CMS-lines with the same cytoplasm type. In experiments on parallel growing of the same F1 hybrid combinations in the “dry plot” and in the “irrigated plot,” it was found that high level of plant water availability during panicle and pollen developmental stages significantly increased male fertility of F1 and test-cross hybrid populations, in which fertility-restoring genes were in heterozygote state, whereas in F2 populations the influences of water availability conditions cause less pronounce effects. Similarly, male-sterile F1 plants, being transferred from the “dry plot” to greenhouse, produced male-fertile panicles. In addition, male-sterile plants from F2 families, which segregated-out as recessives, being transferred to greenhouse also produced male-fertile panicles. In the progenies of these revertants that were grown in field conditions and in the “dry plot,” stable inheritance of male fertility for three cycles of self-pollination was observed, and a number of stable fertile lines in the “9E” cytoplasm were obtained. However, in test-crosses of these fertile lines to CMS-lines with the “9E” cytoplasm restoration of male fertility was not observed, except the progeny of one revertant that behaved as fertility-restorer line. These data suggest that the functional state of fertility-restoring genes for the “9E” sorghum cytoplasm is epigenetically regulated trait established by the influence of environmental factors and is transmitted to sexual generations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: epigenetic inheritance, cytoplasmic male sterility, drought, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench
Author Affiliation: 1Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural Research Institute for South-East Region, Saratov, Russia
Subjects: Plant Production
Crop Improvement
Divisions: Sorghum
Depositing User: Mr. SanatKumar Behera
Date Deposited: 02 Jun 2012 08:43
Last Modified: 02 Jun 2012 08:43
Official URL: http://dx.crossref.org/10.3389%2Ffpls.2012.00091
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/6054

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