Method to obtain male sterile plants

Details Method to obtain male sterile plants Method to obtain male sterile plants

1997-11-12

2000-02-15

Fox, David T.

Multicellular living organisms and unmodified parts thereof and

Plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part, per se

Higher plant, seedling, plant seed, or plant part

800274, 800275, 800285, 800286, 800287, 800298, 800306, 8003201, 8003202, 435199, 435419, 435468, C12N 1582, C12N 1555, C12N 1531, A01H 500, A01H 102

Patent

active

060255463

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method to obtain male-sterile plants using foreign male-sterility genes that comprise plant promoters that direct expression of a male-sterility DNA in stamen cells, and to plants obtained by the method.
(ii) Description of Related Art
In many, if not most plant species, the development of hybrid cultivars is highly desired because of their generally increased productivity due to heterosis: the superiority of performance of hybrid individuals compared with their parents (see e.g. Fehr, 1987, Principles of cultivar development, Volume 1: Theory and Technique, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York; Allard, 1960, Principles of Plant Breeding, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.).
The development of hybrid cultivars of various plant species depends upon the capability to achieve almost complete cross-pollination between parents. This is most simply achieved by rendering one of the parent lines male sterile (i.e., bringing them in a condition so that pollen is absent or nonfunctional) either manually, by removing the anthers, or genetically by using, in the one parent, cytoplasmic or nuclear genes that prevent anther and/or pollen development (for a review of the genetics of male sterility in plants see Kaul, 1988, `Male Sterility in Higher Plants`, Springer Verlag).
For hybrid plants where the seed is the harvested product (e.g., corn, oilseed rape) it is in most cases also necessary to ensure that fertility of the hybrid plants is fully restored. In systems in which the male sterility is under genetic control this requires the existence and use of genes that can restore male fertility. The development of hybrid cultivars is mainly dependent on the availability of suitable and effective sterility and restorer genes.
Endogenous nuclear loci are known for most plant species that may contain genotypes which effect male sterility, and generally, such loci need to be homozygous for particular recessive alleles in order to result in a male-sterile phenotype. The presence of a dominant `male fertile` allele at such loci results in male fertility.
Recently it has been shown that male sterility can be induced in a plant by providing the genome of the plant with a chimeric male-sterility gene comprising a DNA sequence (or male-sterility DNA) coding, for example, for a cytotoxic product (such as an RNase) and under the control of a promoter which is predominantly active in selected tissue of the male reproductive organs. In this regard stamen-specific promoters, such as the promoter of the TA29 gene of Nicotiana tabacum, have been shown to be particularly useful for this purpose (Mariani et al., 1990, Nature 347:737, European patent publication ("EP") 0,344,029). By providing the nuclear genome of the plant with such a male-sterility gene, an artificial male-sterility is locus is created containing the artificial male-sterility genotype that results in a male-sterile plant. Various stamen-specific promoters have been described (see e.g., WO 92/13956, WO 92/13957).
In addition it has been shown that male fertility can be restored to the plant with a chimeric fertility-restorer gene comprising another DNA sequence (or fertility-restorer DNA) that codes, for example, for a protein that inhibits the activity of the cytotoxic product or otherwise prevents the cytotoxic product to be active in the plant cells (EP 0,412,911). For example the barnase gene of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens codes for an RNase, the barnase, which can be inhibited by a protein, the barstar, that is encoded by the barstar gene of B. amyloliquefaciens. The barnase gene can be used for the construction of a sterility gene while the barstar gene can be used for the construction of a fertility-restorer gene. Experiments in different plant species, e.g., oilseed rape, have shown that a chimeric barstar gene can fully restore the male fertility of male sterile lines in which the male sterility was due to the presence of a chimeric barnase gene (EP 0,412,911, Mariani et

REFERENCES:
patent: 5689041 (1997-11-01), Mariani et al.
Fromm et al. Bio/Technology 8(9): 833-839, 1990.
Turgut et al. Plant Mol. Biol. 24(1): 97-104, 1994.
An et al. Plant Physiol. 88(3): 547-552, 1988.

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