Identification and inheritance of male sterility in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Some plants without pods but with gynophores were observed in two F4 progenies of two crosses of goundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). The flowers on these plants had translucent white anthers with no or a few sterile pollen grains. Three such plants in the succeeding generation were hand pollinated with pollen from a short-duration Indian cv. JL 24. The resulting F1 hybrid plants (male sterile x ‘JL 24’) were normal. Chi-square tests for segregation for male fertile and male sterile plants in F2 and F3 generations indicated that the male sterility in these crosses of groundnut is governed by two recessive genes. We designate these genes as ms1 and ms2 with ms1ms1ms2ms2 being a male sterile genotype.