Male sterility and hybrid breeding in soybean

Abstract

Abstract Hybrid breeding can help us to meet the challenge of the growing world population with limited agricultural land. The demand for soybeans is expected to grow, however the hybrid soybean is still in the process of commercialization even though considerable progress has been made in soybean genome and genetic studies in recent years. Here, we summarize recent advances on male sterility-based breeding programs and the current status of hybrid soybean breeding. A number of male-sterile lines with cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), genic-controlled photoperiod/ thermo-sensitive male sterility (GMS) and nuclear male-sterile mutants have been identified in soybean. More than 40 hybrid soybean varieties have been bred using the CMS three-line hybrid system and the cultivation of hybrid soybean still under way. The key to speed up hybrid soybean breeding is to increase the out-crossing rate in an economical way. This review outlines the problems with current hybrid soybean breeding systems and explores the current effort in making the hybrid soybean a commercial success.