Allelic relationship between restorer genes for A1 and A4 CMS systems in pearl millet

Abstract

Understanding the allelic complementation of restoration among the stable restorer lines will contribute to robust pearl millet restorer breeding program. Thus, present study aimed to test allelic relationship between four diverse restorer lines each for A1 and A4 cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) systems to find linkage between restorer genes carried by different restorers of each CMS systems. Six testcrosses were developed for each CMS system by crossing each of A1 and A4 male sterile lines (81A1 and 81 A4) with all possible combination of F1s among four A1 restorers and A4 restorers, respectively. Almost all the plants in these testcrosses showed complete male fertility indicating presence of same fertility restoration gene (allelic) is present in all the four restorer lines of A1 CMS system. Similar results were found for A4 CMS system. This single gene system within A1 and A4 provides the opportunity to breeders to incorporate this allelic restorer gene into any of the advanced lines for its rapid conversion into new restorer lines besides to search for new restorer gene for future diversification.