Abstract
Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is the maternal transmission of failed pollen production in hermaphroditic plants leading to a mixture of male-sterile and hermaphroditic individuals in the population (gynodioecy). Autosomal genes that can restore pollen fertility in the presence of male-sterile cytotypes are commonly observed. CMS in wild populations tends to be associated with (1) the maintenance of distinct cytotypes, each capable of causing male sterility by an apparently different mechanism since each is susceptible to only a particular subset of autosomal restorer alleles; (2) the maintenance of polymorphism at several autosomal restorer loci, with particular alleles or loci specialized for restoring pollen fertility when associated with particular cytotypes; (3) the maintenance of genetic differentiation among geographically distant populations; and (4) the maintenance of phenotypic diversity among populations, measured as the percentage of malesterile individuals. Observations and previous theoret...
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