ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A REVERSE TEMPERATURE SENSITIVE GENIC MALE STERILE MUTANT IN RICE

Abstract

A spontaneous male sterile mutant isolated from a farmer's field at Katrain, Himachal Pradesh during early kharif « 24°q when stubble-planted at Delhi under high temperature (> 300q condition set seeds indicating thus its temperature-influenced behaviour of sterility-fertility alteration. Physiological. characterization of the mutant designated as JP 38 5 under natural and controlled growth chamber conditions has revealed its critical sterility and fertility points to be 24°C and 30.s°C respectively. Critical stage of sensitivity to temperature is 16 days before heading. The mutant source, representing a reverse form of the widely known normal temperature sensitive genic male sterility (TGMS), that remains sterile at high temperature and turns fertile at low temperature will be as much valuable as that of the latter in commercial hybrid seed production in the hills with low temperature and seed multiplication of JP 38 5 in the plains with high temperature.