Mutations blocking sensitivity to gibberellic acid promote ethylene-induced male sterility in wheat

Summary Ethylene is known to perturb normal reproductive development in wheat, particularly the development of functional pollen. Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that increasing insensitivity to gibberellic acid (GA), conferred by the Rht genes, would be associated with increased male sterility in ethrel or Cerone^®-treated wheat. Wild type (WT=rht1/rht1, rht2/rht2), single dwarf (SD=Rht1/Rht1, rht2/rht2 or SD=rht1/rht1, Rht2/Rht2), and double dwarf (DD=Rht1/Rht1, Rht2/Rht2) near-isogenic lines in six genetic backgrounds were treated with ethrel or Cerone^® at the late tetrad to early uninucleate stage of pollen grain development. Ethrel induced pollen abortion in all genotypes but was highest for DD (41% above background) followed by SD (20%), and then WT genotypes (10%). Spikelet fertility decreased as the number of Rht alleles increased in response to ethrel or Cerone^® treatments. Expressed as a percent of controls, spikelet fertility was 56% for WT, 42% for SD, and 29% for DD. The consistent linear relationship between the number of Rht alleles and sensitivity of ethylene-induced male sterility suggests that GA and its recognition may exert a stabilizing effect in pollen development in the presence of stress or an ethylene shock.Paper No. 764 of the Department of Plant Breeding and Biometry, Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station.