A selfish genetic element confers non-Mendelian inheritance in rice.

Selfish genetic elements are pervasive in eukaryote genomes, but their role remains controversial. We show that , a major quantitative genetic locus for hybrid male sterility between wild rice () and Asian cultivated rice (), contains two tightly linked genes [ () and ]. encodes a toxic genetic element that aborts pollen in a sporophytic manner, whereas encodes an antidote that protects pollen in a gametophytic manner. Pollens lacking are selectively eliminated, leading to segregation distortion in the progeny. Analysis of the genetic sequence suggests that arose first, followed by gradual functionalization of Furthermore, this toxin-antidote system may have promoted the differentiation and/or maintained the genome stability of wild and cultivated rice.