Erschienen:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021
Erschienen in:Nature Communications
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.1038/s41467-021-21225-0
ISSN:
2041-1723
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Hybrid wheat varieties give higher yields than conventional lines but are difficult to produce due to a lack of effective control of male fertility in breeding lines. One promising system involves the <jats:italic>Rf1</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Rf3</jats:italic> genes that restore fertility of wheat plants carrying <jats:italic>Triticum timopheevii</jats:italic>-type cytoplasmic male sterility (T-CMS). Here, by genetic mapping and comparative sequence analyses, we identify <jats:italic>Rf1</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Rf3</jats:italic> candidates that can restore normal pollen production in transgenic wheat plants carrying T-CMS. We show that Rf1 and Rf3 bind to the mitochondrial <jats:italic>orf279</jats:italic> transcript and induce cleavage, preventing expression of the CMS trait. The identification of restorer genes in wheat is an important step towards the development of hybrid wheat varieties based on a CMS-<jats:italic>Rf</jats:italic> system. The characterisation of their mode of action brings insights into the molecular basis of CMS and fertility restoration in plants.</jats:p>