Sterile male plants are plants which are incapable of producing
pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...
. This is sometimes attributed to mutations in the
mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...
which affects the
Tapetum cells in anthers which are responsible for nursing developing pollen. The mutations cause the breakdown of the
mitochondria
A mitochondrion () is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is us ...
in these specific cells and result in cell death and so pollen production is interrupted. These observations have now led to transgenic sterile male plants to be made in order to create
hybrid seed In agriculture and gardening, hybrid seed is produced by deliberately cross-pollinating parent plants which are genetically distinct. The parents are usually two inbred strains.
Hybrid seed is common in industrial agriculture and home gardening. It ...
s, by inserting
transgenes which are specifically poisonous to Tapetum cells.
Plant reproduction
Botanical nomenclature
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