Rye has been a major winter forage crop in Korea. Varietal improvement of rye has been practiced either by hybrid or population breeding systems. Hybrid breeding offers important advantages over population breeding since it is normally a cross-pollinated crop. The hybrid breeding in rye has been possible since cytoplasmically inherited forms of male sterility (CMS) and corresponding nuclear restorer genes were found. The objectives of this research were to develop the maintainer and restorer lines of Korean inbred lines and to estimate the effect of 'Pampa' type of CMS cytoplasm on yield and its related characteristics. For easy discrimination of male-sterile status of plants, anther scoring and the restore index system in which seed-setting and pollen quantity of viability were taken into account were established. High significant correlation between pollen quantity and pollen viability was found. For "Pampa" cytoplasm, four of 14 Korean inbred lines tested turned out to be a maintainer but no restorer was found. But for "235b" CMS cytoplasm, seven inbred lines acted as complete restorers. The Korean inbred rye lines acted mainly as maintainers in "Pampa" cytoplasm but acted mainly as restorer in "235b" cytoplasm. The 'Pampa' cytoplasm inducing male sterility reduced cohn length and plant height and increased the number of tiller, so forage yield and grain yield were enhanced. However, heading date was slightly delayed compared to the normal cytoplasm.elayed compared to the normal cytoplasm.

• Hwa-Young Heo
• Byung-Hee Hong
• Rak-Chun Seong
• Moon-Woong Park