Use of molecular beacon for the detection of fertile male plants in batches of sterile male rapeseed

A assay was developed to detect the level of contaminating male fertile rapeseeds within a population of male sterile Ogu-INRA seeds, based on PCR amplification of DNA and fluorescence technology. A molecular beacon was constructed to recognize a specific sequence of the male fertile plant. However, this sequence was also present in the male sterile plant at a very low concentration because of the recombinant structure of the Ogu-INRA mitochondrial genome. Conditions for quantitative PCR were found to take into account this biological data in order to develop an effective test. A 1% contamination can be detected with the naked eye with an ultraviolet light table or by use of a spectrofluorometer. The sensitivity of this method is dependent upon the molecular beacon concentration.