Inheritance of a Male‐Sterile Character in Soybeans

Abstract

The inheritam:e of a male‐sterile character in soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, was investigated in the F 1 , F 2 , and F 3 generations. Sterility was a result of nonfunctioning pollen. Male‐sterile plants, although indistinguishable from fertile plants until the onset of maturity, remain green past usual maturity, have thick, leathery leaves, and have only a few, fleshy, one‐seeded pods. The proportion of fertile to male‐sterile plants in segregating populations indicated that the character is inherited as a single recessive gene pair. Plants were classified as male‐sterile on the basis of pollen viability or plant morpho.logy. The genetic symbols ms 1 ms 1 were proposed for the male‐sterile character. In a natural crossing block, 99% of the seed obtained from malesterile plants were the result of cross‐pollination. Low seed set and the lack of genetic markers for distinguishing male‐sterile iplants before flowering restrict the use of this character in exploiting heterosis in the species.