A cytoplasmic male sterile triticale cultivar, designated 343CMS, is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of triticale cultivar 343CMS, to the plants of triticale 343CMS, and to methods for producing a triticale plant produced by crossing the cultivar 343CMS with itself or another triticale variety. The invention also relates to methods for producing a triticale plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic triticale plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to triticale varieties or breeding varieties and plant parts derived from triticale cultivar 343CMS, to methods for producing other triticale varieties, lines or plant parts derived from triticale cultivar 343CMS, and to the triticale plants, varieties, and their parts derived from the use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid triticale seeds and plants produced by crossing the cultivar 343CMS with another triticale cultivar.

A method for maintaining a male sterile plant in a homozygous recessive state includes providing a first plant that includes homozygous recessive male sterility alleles, providing a second plant that includes homozygous recessive male sterility alleles the same as that in the first plant and a nucleotide construct in which the construct exists in a heterozygous state. The first nucleotide sequence of the nucleotide construct encodes a first protein that restores male fertility of the first plant after expression in the first plant. The second nucleotide sequence of the nucleotide construct allows for distinguishing the grains with or without the construct by observation through naked eyes or devices. The first nucleotide sequence and the second nucleotide sequence are tightly connected with each other and coexist in a plant. The method further includes fertilizing female gametes of the first plant with male gametes of the second plant.

A cytoplasmic male sterile Brassica rapa plant is provided having a growth ability equivalent to that of a Brassica rapa plant having a normal cytoplasm or a progeny of the cytoplasmic male sterile Brassica rapa plant. For example, it is possible to improve the deterioration of growth ability which has been observed in the conventional cytoplasmic male sterile B. rapa plants and provide a cytoplasmic male sterile Brassica rapa plant having an improved growth ability.

The present invention provides use of a photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton in crossbreeding or hybrid seed production. The fertility of the photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton is influenced by the photoperiod. The photoperiod characteristic of the photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton is that, the photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton shows normal fertility when the illumination time is shorter than 11.5 h and shows genic male sterility when the illumination time is longer than 12 h; the photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton is in a fertility change period when the illumination time is in a range of 11.5-12 h and has less pollen. The photoperiod-sensitive genic male sterility mutant of cotton is PSM1, and/or a photoperiod-sensitive genic sterile line obtained through selective breeding of hybridized and/or backcrossed and/or self-bred offsprings of the PSM1.

NWB-CMS Brassica oleracea has cytoplasmic male sterility. It relates to NWB-CMS cabbage plant having cytoplasmic male sterility derived from NWB-CMS cabbage line produced by fusion between protoplast of NWB-CMS radish line plant derived from callus of NWB-CMS radish line having cytoplasmic male sterility with inactivated nucleus and protoplast of male fertile cabbage plant with inactivated cytoplasm and a seed thereof, a plant of NWB-CMS Brassica oleracea line having cytoplasmic male sterility produced by breeding of a male fertile Brassica oleracea as a subject for introduction with the NWB-CMS cabbage plant as a breeding line and a seed thereof, a method for producing a hybrid seed of NWB-CMS Brassica oleracea line having cytoplasmic male sterility comprising breeding of a male fertile Brassica oleracea as a subject for introduction with the NWB-CMS cabbage plant as a breeding line, and a hybrid seed of NWB-CMS Brassica oleracea line produced by the method.

Compositions and methods are provided for screening wheat seed for sorting and selection. Compositions comprise polynucleotides and polypeptides, and fragments and variants thereof, which encode and express a screenable color marker in seeds. Expression cassettes comprise a plant-derived polynucleotide, or fragment or variant thereof, operably linked to a promoter, wherein expression of the polynucleotide modulates the color, opacity, fluorescence, or other property of the seed. The plant-derived marker can be used in a male-sterile production system of hybrid wheat seed. Methods for maintaining a line of male-sterile plants and for restoring male fertility in a male-sterile plant, comprising a screenable color marker are provided.

Methods are described for selecting or producing a cereal plant comprising a functional restorer gene for wheat G-type cytoplasmic male sterility and nucleic acids for use therein.

Genetic male sterile plants are provided in which complementing constructs result in suppression of a parental phenotype in the progeny. Methods to generate and maintain such plants and methods of use of said plants, are provided, including use of parental plants to produce sterile plants for hybrid seed production.

A method for breeding a small-grain male-sterile rice line and a simple method for producing a hybrid rice seed are provided. The method for breeding the small-grain sterile rice line includes the following steps: crossing a female parent C815S with a male parent Qigui B to obtain a hybrid seed F1; planting the F1 and crossing the F1 with a female parent H155S to obtain a crossed hybrid seed F1′; planting the crossed hybrid seed F1′ to obtain a F2′ generation; planting an individual plant with ideal plant type, strong tillering, plant dwarf and small grain type from the F2′ generation and a F3′ generation, and then directional breeding more than two generations to obtain a seed with more than F5′ generation as the small-grain sterile rice line.

This invention describes a new method to increase grain yields in any crop plant by modifying pollination to effect an increase in grain yield, a change in grain content or characteristics, a decrease in contamination, or a combination of these attributes. The process involves the intentional delivery of pollen of the male plant at will to designated male-sterile female plants as available either in a preserved pollen bank, or real-time collection from male plants as they become available, in a growth chamber for example. Desired pollen is delivered to fertile females. The delivered pollen.sup.M is in such amounts and fortuitously timed that it preferentially pollinates the females and pollination from neighboring male-fertile plants. The intentional delivery of genetically different pollen will result in increased heterosis and accompanying grain yield increases resulting from increased grain size and the potential to influence grain content and constituents. The invention also permits real-time agronomic decision making in order to maximize grain yield by overcoming biotic and abiotic challenges in the growing season which may or may not have been anticipated.