Sterile Sorghum Mutant for 2 Line Breeding

OTT#1578

Applications

Joint inventors from UWM and USDA ARS have discovered new nuclear male sterile (NMS) mutants of sorghum which can be used to create an easier breeding system using a two-line system versus the current systems that use three lines.

Technology

A three-component genetic construct comprising the capacity to produce pure male sterile plants, rescue the male fertility, ablate transgenic pollen, sort the transgenic seeds from non-transgenic seeds, and allow propagation of pure male sterile sorghum plants for hybrid breeding and maintenance of a maintainer line.

Key Benefits

• Faster – 2-line breeding system will allow for faster growth of new sorghum lines
• Easier – Currently breeders use 3-line systems making breeding cumbersome
• Safer – The transgenic seeds will be removed by molecular ablation and physical sorting to ensure the male  sterile plants in the nursery are transgene-free
• Cheaper – Maintaining fewer lines should provide a savings in the breeding process
• Versatile – Male sterile sorghum plants can be created in diverse genetic backgrounds for hybrids

Intellectual Property

US Patent Pending, US20210130844A1

This technology is available for developmental research support/licensing under either exclusive or non-exclusive terms.

Papers:

Xin et al. 2017. Morphological Characterization of a New and Easily Recognizable Nuclear Male Sterile Mutant of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). PLOS ONE, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165195

Zhanguo Xin, et al 2018.  Registration of BTx623 _ms8 , a New and Easily Identifiable Nuclear Male Sterile Mutant in Sorghum. J. of Plant Reg. https://doi:10.3198/jpr2017.09.0063crgs

Inventor (s)

Dazhaong (Dave) Zhao and Zhanguo Xin