Molecular tagging of a genic male-sterile gene in rice

The sterility of Pingxiang male-sterile rice (Pms), possibly derided from a spontaneous mutation in Pingxiang fertile rice (Pmf), was previously reported to be controlled by a single dominant nuclear gene. It can be restored to fertility either by a dominant epistatic gene or by higher temperature treatment at the early stage of inflorescence development. In order to tag the genic male-sterile gene, Pms, Pmf and Ce 64, a cytoplasmic male-sterile restoring line without the epistatic gene for Pms, were used to construct mapping populations. Two segregation populations, “(Pms/Ce 64) F1s (sterile plant)//Pmf ” F1 and “Pms//(Pmf/Ce 64) F1” F1, were simultaneously developed. Subsequently, the genic male- sterile gene was mapped between a simple sequence length polymorphism marker, RM228, and a restriction fragment length polymorphism marker, G2155, with distances of 14.9 and 2.6 cM, respectively. The tagged dominant genic male-sterile gene is temporarily designated Ms-p.