Male Sterility in three crop Lupinus species

Male sterility is described for the first time in lupin crop species Lupinus angustifolius L. and Lupinus luteus L. and is also characterized in the Andean lupin, Lupinus mutabilis Sweet. In L. angustifolius and L. luteus, male-sterile plants were identified in artificially induced mutation populations, while in L. mutabilis, both naturally occurring and induced male-sterile plants were selected. For L. angustifolius artificially induced sterility, the segregation ratios in F-1, F-2 and backcrosses showed a single-gene recessive inheritance and was concluded to be of a nuclear rather than cytoplasmic form. In L. luteus, male-sterile plants were recovered from an M-3 mutation population derived from cv. 'Wodjil', and several were consistent with that of single recessive gene, most likely nuclear. A naturally occurring sterility in L. mutabilis was concluded to be cytoplasmic with identification of restorer and maintainer genotypes. The trait in L. mutabilis has greatly increased the rate of F-1 seed set with zero selfing. Male sterility could be useful for increasing crossing efficiency in breeding programmes, for exploiting heterosis and for interspecific hybridization.