Patent ID: 7915478

Claim:
A method of maintaining a homozygous recessive condition of a male sterile plant, the method comprising: (a) providing a first plant comprising homozygous recessive alleles of a Msca1 gene wherein said plant is male sterile; (b) providing a second plant comprising homozygous recessive alleles of the Msca1 gene and a construct in the hemizygous condition, the construct comprising: (i) a first nucleotide sequence comprising the Msca1 nucleotide sequence, that when expressed in the first plant would restore male fertility; (ii) a second nucleotide sequence that when expressed inhibits the function or formation of viable male gametes in the second plant, such that viable male gametes are produced in the second plant containing the recessive allele of Msca1 and that do not contain the construct; and (c) fertilizing the first plant with the male gametes of the second plant to produce progeny which maintain the homozygous recessive condition of the first plant, wherein the first nucleotide sequence is selected from the group consisting of: (a) SEQ ID NO: 16; (b) a nucleic acid sequence encoding the amino acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 17; (c) a nucleic acid sequence having at least 90% identity to the full length of any of the foregoing sequences wherein the sequence impacts male fertility in a plant; (d) a nucleic acid sequence having at least 95% identity to the full length of any of the sequences of parts (a) or (b) wherein the sequence impacts male fertility in a plant; and (e) a nucleic acid sequence which hybridizes to the full length complement of any of the sequences of parts (a) or (b) under highly stringent conditions of a wash of 0.1 SSC, 0.1% (w/v) SDS at 65° C. wherein the sequence impacts male fertility in a plant.