Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Study Reveals the Genetic Mechanism of Dominant Male Sterility in Cabbage
Published:02 Nov.2023 Source:BioArt Plant
Recently, the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences published a paper in the international journal Nature Communications, reporting that researchers have for the first time cloned the dominant male sterile gene Ms-cd1 in cabbage using forward genetics approaches, and elucidated the molecular mechanism underlying its sterility phenotype.
The study shows that the Ms-cd1 gene encodes a transcription factor specifically expressed in stamens. In sterile lines, there is a single base deletion mutation in the promoter region of the Ms-cd1 gene, which significantly enhances its transcriptional activity, thus leading to male sterility. This finding provides a theoretical basis for utilizing the dominant male sterility system in cabbage hybrid breeding.
Compared to the currently commercialized cytoplasmic male sterility system, dominant male sterile lines as maternal parents have advantages like larger flowers, well-developed nectaries, and stronger bee-attracting ability. Through years of effort, the research team has bred multiple excellent generations of dominantly male sterile lines in cabbage, pakchoi and other species, and developed commercially successful hybrids like Zhonggan 18 and Zhonggan 21, making great progress in the utilization of dominant male sterility in cabbage in China. This study further optimizes the hybrid breeding technology system based on this sterility system.