Abstract: Investigations on the mechanism of fertility alternation and its regulation in photoperiodsensitive genic male-sterile rice (PGMR) have received considerable attention due to the important significance in both basic research of plant developmental biology and PGMR potential value in the development of two line hybrid rice seed programs. The present review described the major achivements of study on PGMR in terms of developmental biology: phytochrome was found to be the photoreceptor involved in photoperiod-modulated fertility alternation in PGMR; chloroplasts played a significant role in the photoperiodic signal transduction; gibberellins and auxin might be the chemical signals for fertility regulation; identifying of special proteins promoted the exploration of specially expressed genes related to fertility regulation in PGMR. The author hypothesized that four main steps of photoperiodic signal transduction were involved in the realization of male sterility-multistage magni-fied injury effects to normal function of PGMR induced by long-day stress. There was defect in the anther development of PGMR, and the resistance of anthers to environmental stress was weakened. The multifactor coaction model for photoperiod regulation in fertility alternation in PGMR was proposed and discussed.

Key words: Rice, Male sterility, Photoperiod, Phytochrome, Chloroplast, Phytohormone, Special protein, Coaction