Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 229

Male sterility is used primarily as a tool in plant breeding to eliminate emasculation in hybridization. Hybrid breeding of self‐pollinated species is tedious and time‐consuming. Plant breeders use male‐sterile cultivars as female parents in a cross without emasculation. Male‐sterile lines can be developed by backcrossing.

Using genetic male sterility in plant breeding is problematic because it is not possible to produce a pure population of male‐sterile plants using conventional methods. It is difficult to eliminate the female population, before either harvesting or sorting harvested seed. Consequently, this system of pollination control is not widely used for commercial hybrid seed production. On the contrary, CMS is used routinely in hybrid seed production in corn, sorghum, sunflower, and sugar beet. The application of male sterility in commercial plant hybridization is discussed in Chapter 19.