Engineered male sterility

Abstract

The agricultural exploitation of hybrid crop varieties has enabled enormous increases in food productivity through increased uniformity and hybrid vigour. Because of hybrid vigour, or heterosis, these crops are characterized by an increased resistance to disease and enhanced performance in different environments when comparing the heterozygous hybrid progeny (called F1 hybrids) to the homozygous parents. The generation of male sterility, mainly nucleus -encoded, is the basis of new, reliable, and cost-effective pollination control systems for genetic engineering that have been developed during the past decade. The propagation of male-sterile female parent lines is an important aspect for the successful application of these systems in large-scale hybrid seed production. This article describes the development and use of transgenic engineered plants.