Breeding pair of wheat plants comprising an MS45 promoter inverted repeat that confers male sterility and a construct that restores fertility

A construct effective for inhibiting fertility in a polyploid wheat plant, said construct comprising a promoter inverted repeat (pIR) comprising at least a 20-nucleotide fragment of SEQ ID NO:

• 1, 2, and/or 3 and is effective for silencing expression of endogenous MS45 genes.

A breeding pair of wheat plants comprising a first wheat plant and a second wheat plant, wherein the first wheat plant expresses a promoter inverted repeat (pIR), wherein the pIR comprises at least a 20-nucleotide fragment of SEQ ID NO:

• 1, 2, and/or 3 and is effective for silencing expression of endogenous MS45 genes and wherein expression of said pIR results in male sterility of the first wheat plant;
• and wherein the second wheat plant comprises a construct comprising a polynucleotide, expression of which will complement the male-sterility of the first wheat plant, and wherein the polynucleotide is operably linked to a second promoter which would not be impacted by the pIR of the first wheat plant;
• wherein crossing the wheat plants restores fertility to progeny of the first wheat plant.