Increased expression of the HvMALE STERILITY1 Transcription Factor Results in Temperature-Sensitive Male Sterility in Barley

Fernandez Gomez, Jose; Talle, Behzad; Wilson, Zoe

Abstract

Understanding the control of fertility is critical for crop yield and breeding, this is particularly important for hybrid breeding to capitalise upon the resultant hybrid vigour. Different hybrid breeding systems have been adopted, however these are challenging and crop specific. Mutants with environmentally-reversible fertility offer valuable opportunities for hybrid breeding. The barley HvMS1gene encodes for a PHD-finger transcription factor that is expressed in the anther tapetum, which is essential for pollen development and causes complete male sterility when over-expressed in barley. This male sterility is due at least in part to indehiscent anthers resulting from incomplete tapetum degeneration, failure of anther opening and sticky pollen, under normal growth conditions (15˚C). However, dehiscence and fertility is restored when plants are grown at temperatures >20˚C, or when transferred to >20˚C during flowering prior to Pollen Mitosis I, with transfer at later stages unable to rescue fertility in vivo. As far as we are aware this is the first report of thermo-sensitive male sterility in barley. This offers opportunities to understand the impact of temperature on pollen development and potential applications for environmentally-switchable hybrid breeding systems; it also provides a “female” male sterile breeding tool that does not need emasculation to facilitate backcrossing.

Citation

Fernandez Gomez, J., Talle, B., & Wilson, Z. (2020). Increased expression of the HvMALE STERILITY1 Transcription Factor Results in Temperature-Sensitive Male Sterility in Barley. Journal of Experimental Botany, 71(20), 6328–6339. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa382

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 21, 2020
• Publication Date: Oct 22, 2020
• Deposit Date: Aug 24, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 22, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Botany
• Print ISSN: 0022-0957
• Electronic ISSN: 1460-2431
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 20
• Pages: 6328–6339
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa382
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4849447
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jxb/eraa382/5898994