Abstract:

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) has been widely used as an efficient pollination control system for oilseed rape hybrid production. The natural occurrence of CMS, however, has rarely been found in Brassica species，with Polima CMS as the only useful one for hybrid production. Hence the transfer and induction of new male sterile cytoplasm is very important for the application of heterosis in Brassica crops. Somatic hybridization as an approach for the transfer and induction of CMS is highly efficient because it bypasses sexual incompatibility and recombines the cytoplasmic genomes of two parental lines. It is reviewed in this paper that the transfer and induction of CMS trait within species or between species and genera by protoplast fusion methodology establish valuable CMS in agriculturally important species or varieties of oilseed Brassica. The perspective of somatic hybridization and the potential of the established novel CMS systems for oilseed rape hybrid improvement are also discussed.

Key words: Oilseed rape, Cytoplasmic male sterility, Protoplast fusion, Remote hybridization, Mitochondrial recombination