0
Researchers have discovered orf137, the gene underlying male sterility in a strain of tomato plant, CMS tomato. Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) — where a plant is unable to make fertile pollen — is an agriculturally important trait used for efficiently producing F1 hybrid seeds (F1 being the first generation resulting from the crossbreeding of two distinctly different parental types). This discovery could reduce the costs of F1 seed production in the future.