Homozygous females are essentially completely sterile. Fertility can be recovered in homozygous females by the substitution of cytoplasm by outcrossing. The mfs(2)3501 mutation exerts its effect (producing sterility) only in the presence of cytoplasm from the "350" line in which the mutation was originally isolated. Homozygous males are sterile. Fertility can also be recovered by the substitution of cytoplasm by outcrossing. Homozygous females that are fertile due to the cytoplasmic constitution have normal ovaries with mature eggs and homozygous males that are fertile due to the cytoplasmic constitution have normal testes filled with bundles of spermatozoa and motile sperm. Homozygous females that are sterile due to the cytoplasmic constitution have rudimentary ovaries with no mature eggs. Homozygous sterile males generally have rudimentary testes with no bundles of spermatozoa or motile sperm, but some have normal-sized testes, which in most cases have bundles of spermatozoa but no motile sperm.
male-sterile female-sterile
Isolated from: Kofu, Japan population, 1971. Separable from: mle1. Recovered as the "350" second chromosome which carries both mfs(2)3501 and mle1.