Abstract:

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) Beauv.) is an old and important food crop in China, India and other countries of East Asia. It is still grown as birdseed in Europe and as fodder plant in South America. As a drought resistant crop, foxtail millet has been playing an important role on dry farming. Utilizing heterosis is one of the most economic and effective approached to improving yield of crops, and the use of male sterility is an economic and effective way to utilize heterosis in foxtail millet. After seventies of last century, obvious progress has been made on the study of male sterility, and several sterile germplasms of foxtail millet were produced. “Chifeng sterility”, a nuclear genic interaction type of dominant male sterility in foxtail millet, was discovered from the hybrids of Australia millet and Tulufan millet. To identify AFLP markers linked to the gene “Ms^ch” conferring the dominant male sterility, sterile bulk (SB) and fertile bulk (FB) prepared from the NILs were subjected to polymorphism screening in AFLP analysis. A total of 400 random AFLP primer combinations were used to screen polymorphic markers. Two markers (P17/M37₂₂₄ and P35/M52₂₀₈, Fig.2 and 3 ) tightly linked to the dominant male-sterility gene were identified, with a map distance to the gene of 2.1 cM and 1.4 cM, respectively. These two markers may play an important role in the identification of Ms^ch lines through marker-assisted selection in foxtail millet to improve the breeding efficiency.

Key words: Foxtail millet, Dominant male sterility, AFLP marker