Molecular mechanisms underlying plant environment-sensitive genic male sterility and fertility restoration

Abstract

Male reproduction, an essential and vulnerable process in the plant life cycle, is easily disrupted by changes in surrounding environmental factors such as temperature, photoperiod, or humidity. Plants have evolved multiple mechanisms to buffer adverse environmental effects; understanding these mechanisms is crucial to increase crop resilience to a changing climate, and to provide new breeding tools for hybrid seed production. Here, we review the latest research progresses in molecular mechanisms underlying plant environment-sensitive genic male sterility and fertility restoration, covering both genetic and epigenetic aspects, and summarize the common molecular mechanisms underlying fertility conversion using knowledges obtained from photoperiod/thermo-sensitive genic male sterility (P/TGMS) mutants. This review, therefore, aims to better understand male fertility adaptation in response to environmental factors, with a focus on future applications for two-line hybrid breeding.