Ba, Q. S., Zhang, G. S., Wang, J. S., Che, H. X., Liu, H. Z., Niu, N., Ma, S. C. and Wang, J. W. 2013. Relationship between metabolism of reactive oxygen species and chemically induced male sterility in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Can. J. Plant Sci. 93: 675-681. Chemically induced male sterility (CIMS) systems in wheat are among the male sterility types used for hybrid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in China. Some studies suggested that male sterile line Xi'nong 1376-CIMS induced by chemical hybridizing agents (CHA) may suffer from oxidative stress as its cyanide-resistant respiration is lower than that of Xi'nong1376. To elucidate the metabolic mechanism of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the CIMS anthers, the metabolism changes in the production and scavenging of ROS and gene expression related to ROS-scavenging enzymes were investigated in the anther of Xi'nong 1376-CIMS and Xi'nong1376.Anthers of Xi'nong 1376-CIMS had higher contents of and H₂O₂ than those of 1376, which corresponds to expression level of the NADPH oxidase (NOX) gene, and has higher contents of malondialdehyde compared with 1376. Simultaneously, there were lower activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascrodate peroxidase (APX) in scavenging ROS in the anthers of the Xi'nong 1376-CIMS line than in Xi'nong1376. Meanwhile, the expressions of SOD, POD, CAT and APX genes in 1376 were always higher at different levels than those in the Xi'nong 1376-CIMS line except for POD in stage 1. Therefore, it is possible that the sterility in Xi'nong 1376-CIMS is related to the abortion of microspores induced by chronic oxidative stress caused by an abnormal increase in ROS.