Low temperature induced male sterility in Sorghum bicolor

Abstract

Male sterility was induced in sorghum by exposing plants to a temperature regime of 18/13°C (day-night temperatures) during meiosis in the pollen mother cells. This normally occurs at the time the last (flag) leaf is emerging and elongating. The majority of genotypes examined were rendered completely male sterile by the low temperature regime. However, some genotypes retained a low degree of pollen fertility. The low temperatures appeared to have little, if any, effect on female fertility. The available evidence indicates that it is the night temperature, rather than the mean temperature, which is critical for the induction of pollen sterility. The potential uses of this method of inducing male sterility in plant breeding and genetics programs are briefly discussed.