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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. 3 (2026)

Breeding potential of Ogura cytoplasmic male sterility lines of Indian cauliflower revealed through floral and reproductive characterisation

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.14282
Submitted
28 February 2026
Published
27-09-2026 — Updated on 30-09-2026
Versions

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate floral and yield-related traits in 40 cauliflower lines, comprising 20 cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) lines and their respective maintainers. The experiment was performed during the rabi seasons of  2021–22 and 2022–23 at the research farm of the Vegetable Science Department, UHF, Nauni, Solan. Paired t-test analysis revealed significant differences between CMS lines and their corresponding maintainers for most of the attributes, indicating the negative influence of male-sterile cytoplasm on reproductive performance in cauliflower. Among the CMS lines, UHF-CAU-12A was distinctly separated from the remaining lines based on floral traits, particularly ovary type. In contrast, the maintainer lines UHF-CAU-4B and UHF-CAU-7B exhibited superior performance for key floral characters such as petal length and width, sepal length and pollen viability. Evaluation of seed-setting and yield-related traits like pod length identified CMS lines ranging from 4.00 cm (UHF-CAU-6A) to 7.97 cm (UHF-CAU-9A) and 5.40 cm (UHF-CAU-5B) to 9.60 cm (UHF-CAU-18B) in the maintainer lines. The study concludes that Ogura cytoplasm exerts adverse effects on floral development and yield traits in cauliflower. However, the identified CMS and maintainer lines hold significant potential for their effective utilisation in hybrid breeding and hybrid seed production (HSP) programmes in India.

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