Method for the mapping of a female partial-sterile locus on a molecular marker linkage map

The female gametophyte is an absolutely essential structure for angiosperm reproduction, and female sterility has been reported in a number of crops. In this paper, a maximum-likelihood method is presented for estimating the position and effect of a female partial-sterile locus in a backcross population using the observed data of dominant or codominant markers. The ML solutions are obtained via Bailey’s method. The process for the estimating of the recombination fractions and the viabilities of female gametes are described, and the variances of the estimates of the parameters are also presented. Application of the method is demonstrated using a set of simulated data. This method circumvents the problems of the traditional mapping methods for female sterile genes which were based on data from seed set or embryo-sac morphology and anatomy.