GENETICS OF FOUR MALE-STERILE, FEMALE-FERTILE SOYBEAN MUTANTS

Authors: Palmer, Reid

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/27/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Plants may have abnormalities that cause them not to produce seed. One explanation is that these plants are male sterile. If plants are male sterile but female fertile they have use in plant breeding programs. We have identified four male-sterile, female-fertile plants in our soybean genetics program. Three of them are distinctly different from the previous sseven known male-sterile, female-fertile mutants identified in soybean. The fourth one is identical to the previously identified soybean plant called male-sterile, female-fertile number 2. These four plants could be used as female parents in a soybean breeding program to produce hybrid seed. These seeds have the potential to produce more soybean per acre, be resistant to insects and disease and make more profit for producers.

Technical Abstract: Mutations affecting male cell and organ development cause male-sterile, female-fertile plants that have application in plant breeding. In studies designed to test recombination frequencies and allelism, four such mutants were identified independently, in soybean populations which were characterized by chromosomal instability. The objectives were to determine ethe inheritance of these four mutants and to test allelism with the seven known male-sterile, female-fertile soybean mutants. All four mutants were inherited as single recessive nuclear genes. Mutants MSM-1, MSM-2, MSM-3, and MSM-4 were nonallelic to each other. Mutants MSM-1, MSM-2, and MSM-3 were nonallelic to known mutants. They were assigned Genetic Type Collection numbers, T357H, T358H, and T359H and gene symbols Ms7 ms7, Ms8 ms8, and Ms9 ms9, respectively. Mutant MSM-4 was allelic to T259H (Ms2 ms2) and was designated T360H Ms2 ms2 (Ames). The T259H Ms2 ms2 mutant becomes T259H Ms2 ms2 (Eldorado). Dehisced anthers from MSM-1 and MSM-4 were similar in phenotype. Aborted pollen grains of MSM-2 and MSM-3 were different in phenotype from each other and from the seven known male- sterile, female-fertile soybean mutants. These four independently derived male-sterile, female-fertile mutants could be used in plant breeding to produce hybrid seed.