Question:

In 1942, Owen and Jones proposed a system of hybrid seed production in sugarbeet by using which of the following?

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Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS) is maternally inherited.
This means the CMS trait is passed down through the cytoplasm of the egg cell, making the offspring of a CMS female also male-sterile.
  • Male sterility
  • Self-incompatibility
  • Apomixis
  • Chemical hybridizing agents
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Hybrid seed production in cross-pollinated crops requires efficient mechanisms to control pollination.
These mechanisms prevent self-pollination in the female parent line, ensuring that only cross-pollination by the male line occurs.

Step 2: Detailed Explanation:

Sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris) is a highly cross-pollinated crop, and manually emasculating its small, dense flowers is not commercially feasible.
In 1942, geneticist F. V. Owen (along with subsequent research by Jones) discovered Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS) in sugarbeet.
This maternal inheritance system prevents the development of functional pollen grains in the male-sterile (A-line) plants.
The CMS system allowed breeders to easily maintain a female parent line that could not self-pollinate.
This female line could then be open-pollinated by a chosen fertile pollinizer line (R-line) to produce high-yielding hybrid seeds.
This discovery eliminated the need for manual emasculation and made the commercial production of hybrid sugarbeet seeds possible.
Consequently, the system proposed by Owen and Jones relies on male sterility.

Step 3: Final Answer:

The hybrid seed production system in sugarbeet proposed by Owen and Jones in 1942 utilizes male sterility.
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