Selection and genetic improvement of pollen fertility restorer lines with Triticum timopheevii cytoplasm in common wheat

Abstract

AbstractThe paper summarizes the selection and improvement of pollen fertility restoration in cytoplasmic male‐sterile lines during the past 30 years at Jiangsu Province, China. A fertility restorer line (R16) with a good history of strong and stable restoring ability to different sterile lines was bred by accumulating fertility‐restoring genes from derivatives of T797 and other restorer lines such as Primepi. A series of well‐performing restorer lines with similar fertility‐restoring ability has been bred by improving agronomic characters, disease‐resistance and kernel size of R16. The restoring ability of these restorer lines using different male‐sterile lines demonstrates that fertility restoration is no longer an obstacle for commercial utilization of hybrid wheat with the Triticum timopheeviii cytoplasmic male‐sterile system. Line 2114 is a restorer with a single restoring gene transferred from Aegilops umbellulata. Its restoring ability, using both difficult and easily restored lines was 82% and 93.3% respectively. Maiyou No. 5, one hybrid variety, showed 13.2% yield advantage over the control variety in the Jiangsu Province registration test in 1997‐1998 and was superior to nine other varieties adapted to the Jiangsu Province.