The genetic basis of cytoplasmic male sterility and fertility restoration in wheat

<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Hybrid wheat varieties give higher yields than conventional lines but are difficult to produce due to a lack of effective control of male fertility in breeding lines. One promising system involves the <i>Rf1</i> and <i>Rf3</i> genes that restore fertility of wheat plants carrying <i>Triticum timopheevii</i>-type cytoplasmic male sterility (T-CMS). By genetic mapping and comparative sequence analyses we identified <i>Rf1</i> and <i>Rf3</i> candidates that could restore normal pollen production in transgenic wheat plants carrying T-CMS. We show that Rf1 and Rf3 bind to the mitochondrial <i>orf279</i> transcript and induce cleavage, preventing expression of the CMS trait. The identification of restorer genes in wheat is an important step towards the development of hybrid wheat varieties based on a CMS-<i>Rf</i> system. The characterisation of their mode of action brings new insights into the molecular basis of CMS and fertility restoration in plants.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <br> This dataset includes transcript count and coverage data from 2 RNA-seq experiments looking at gene expression in various male-sterile or male-fertile wheat lines examined in the course of this research.</p>