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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #104164
Title: GENETICS AND CYTOLOGY OF A GENIC MALE-STERILE, FEMALE-STERILE MUTANT FROM ATRANSPOSON-CONTAINING SOYBEAN POPULATION

Author
item Palmer, Reid
item HORNER, HARRY - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of Heredity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/27/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: In plants and animals concerted development of male and female reproductive structures leads to fertility. Any disruptions of this concerted development can result in sterility. In a soybean population which generates a high level of variation, a number of male-sterile, and female- sterile plants were found. The genetics and microscopic development indicated that sterility was simply inherited and that specialized cells that nourish the sex cells were non-functional. These unusual plants help us to better understand the normal development processes that result in completely fertile soybean plants.

Technical Abstract: A male-sterile, female-sterile mutant (w4-m sterile) was identified among progeny of germinal revertants of a gene-tagging study. Our objectives were to determine the genetics (inheritance, allelism, and linkage) and the cytology (microsporogenesis and microgametogenesis) of the w4-m sterile. The mutant was inherited as a single recessive gene and was nonallelic to known male-sterile, female-sterile mutants st2 st2, st3 st3, st4 st4, st5 st5, and st6 st6 st7 st7. No linkage was detected between the w4-m sterile and the w4w4, y10 y10, y11 y11, y20 y20, fr1 fr1, and fr2 fr2 mutants. Developmentally, microsporogenesis proceeded normally in both the fertile and the w4-m sterile through the early microspore stage. Then the tapetal cells of the w4-m sterile surrounding the young microspores developed different-sized vacuoles. These tapetal cells then became smaller in size and separated from each other. Some of the microspores of the w4-m sterile ealso became more vacuolate prematurely and sometimes they collapsed, usually by the late microspore stage. In the w4-m sterile the microspore walls remained thinner and structurally different from the microspore walls of fertile plants. No pollen was formed in the mutant plants, even though some of the male cells reached the pollen stage, although without normal filling. The w4-m sterile was designated st8st8 and assigned the Soybean Genetic Type Collection number T352.