Gene-dependent male sterility and plastomes in Oenothera

Abstract

The plastids in the cells of the tapetum in anther of Oenothera are involved in the development of male sterility (mst). We combined nuclear homozygosity for each of the two mst genes with the four different plastomes of Oenothera and demonstrated that in both cases the sterile anther phenotype is independent of the plastome. The experiments provide additional information on competition between megaspores and embryo sacs in the ovule.