Abstract:Analysis was carried out to explore the nature of Me14/Em8 marker for kenaf WA-CMS cytoplasm and develop the more credible markers linked to kenaf CMS cytoplasm.The upstream flanking sequence of Me14 binding site was amplified by homologue cloning.Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to analyze the expression levels of the loci in different tissues.(1)The sequences analysis showed a G/A SNP in the Me14 binding site of the CMS line (P3A) and its maintainer line (P3B) mtDNA.Purified E1 PCR product amplified using the total DNA of P3B as template can be digested by HpaⅡ because of the “CCGG” sequence in the Me14 binding site,in contrast with that of P3A because of the “CCGA” sequence in the corresponding locus.(2)The characteristics of the SNP loci showed that the E1 fragments that were amplified using the total DNA of the nine maintainer and the five restorer lines as template can be digested by HpaⅡ,in contrast with that of the nine CMS lines and the F1 hybrids.(3)RT-PCR results also showed the existence of E1 transcripts.However,no differences were found in the expression patterns between P3A and P3B.Blastx searches of publicly available gene and protein databases did not produce any statistically significant “hit” to known genes.The SNP marker associated with the CMS cytoplasm can be regarded as a point mutation in mtDNA of male sterile lines,which is not related to chimeric gene.