AOBPreview originally published online on June 29, 2005
Annals of Botany 2005 96(3):461-466; doi:10.1093/aob/mci197
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company 2005
Distribution of Fertility-restorer Genes for Wild-abortive and Honglian CMS Lines of Rice in the AA Genome Species of Genus Oryza
Key Laboratory of MOE for Plant Developmental Biology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, PR China
* For correspondence. E-mail zhuyg{at}public.wh.hb.cn
Received: 10 October 2004 Returned for revision: 3 February 2005 Accepted: 12 May 2005 Published electronically: 29 June 2005
Background and Aims Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important cereal plants in the world. Wild-abortive (WA) and Honglian (HL) cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) have been used extensively in the production of hybrid seeds. Although a variable number of fertility-restorer genes (Rf) for WA and HL-CMS have been identified in various cultivars, information on Rf in Oryza species with the AA-genome is sparse. Therefore the distribution and heredity of Rf for WA and HL-CMS in wild rice species of Oryza with the AA-genome were investigated.
Methods Fertility-restorer genes for WA and HL-CMS in wild rice species with the AA-genome were investigated by following the fertility of microspores identified by I2KI staining and by following the seed-setting rate of spikelets. A genetic model of Rf in some selected restorer accessions was analysed based on the fertility segregation of BC1F1 populations.
Key Results Fertility analysis showed that 21 out of 35 HL-type F1s, and 13 out of 31 WA-type F1s were scored as fertile. The frequency of Rf in wild rice was 60 % for HL-CMS and 41·9 % for WA-CMS, respectively. The fertility-restorer accessions, especially those with complete restoring ability, aggregated mainly in two species of O. rufipogon and O. nivara. The wild rice accessions with Rf for HL-CMS were distributed in Asia, Oceania, Latin American and Africa, but were centered mainly in Asia, whilst the wild restorer accessions for WA-CMS were limited only to Asia and Africa. Apart from one restorer accession that possessed two pairs of Rf for WA-CMS, all of the other nine tested wild restorer accessions each contained only a single Rf for WA-CMS or HL-CMS. Allele analysis indicated that there existed at least three Rf loci for the WA and HL-CMS systems.
Conclusions These data support the hypothesis that fertility-restorer genes exist widely in Oryza species with the AA-genome, and that Rf in Oryza sativa originated from the Oryza rufipogon/Oryza nivara complex, the ancestor of cultivated rice in Asia. The origin and evolution of Rf is tightly linked to that of CMS in wild rice, and fertility of a given CMS type is controlled by several Rf alleles in various wild restorer accessions.
Key words: AA genome, Oryza, cytoplasmic male sterility, fertility-restorer genes, distribution, heredity, Honglian, wild-abortive