Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome III restores fertility in a cytoplasmic male-sterile Brassica napus line with A. thaliana mitochondrial DNA

Somatic Brassica napus (+) Arabidopsis thaliana hybrids with a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS)-inducing cytoplasm were screened for fertility-restored plants. One line was selected and recurrently backcrossed with the maintainer line, B. napus, resulting in fertile/sterile segregating populations. Restriction fragment length polymorphism mapping showed the co-segregation of A. thaliana chromosome (chr) III markers with the fertility trait. As it was not possible to stabilise the fertility trait via selfings, a dihaploidisation strategy was assessed. Ninety haploid plants were regenerated and analysed with numerous simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers. Markers covering both arms of A. thaliana chr III were present in two plants, whereas no A. thaliana DNA could be detected in the other plants. Following colchicine-induced chromosome doubling only these two plants with A. thaliana DNA produced fertile offspring. In one of the two lines, however, the A. thaliana-specific DNA markers and fertility were lost in subsequent generations. The other line remained fertile after repeated selfings. Using genomic in situ hybridisation (GISH) we were able to demonstrate that this latter line possessed a disomic addition of the A. thaliana chromosome. The restored line was comparable to the maintainer line with respect to flower morphology, but the petals and stamens were slightly reduced in size. The homeotic conversion of stamens to pistil-like structures, which is typical for the CMS line, was reversed, and stamens with a normal appearance with viable pollen appeared. Flowering time was as in the CMS line—in both lines it was delayed in comparison to the maintainer line. The introgressed chromosome also contributes to several pleiotropic effects, such as reduced leaf crinkling and shorter stems. The ability to restore fertility through the introgression of nuclear genes from the main cytoplasmic donor species indicates that the CMS trait in this system mainly is due to B. napus/A. thaliana alloplasmic incompatibility and not mitochondrial DNA rearrangements. Further exploitation of the material is discussed.Communicated by C. Möllers