Two F2 populations with different kinds of spike derived from maize male sterility materials RP3 195(A)X S37(inbred line), which had been sib-bred for many generations, were used for sterility analysis and gene location. There were 138 and 247, plants in the two F2 populations respectively．Among the 326 pairs of microsat-ellite primers selected，56 were found polymorphic．Linkage analysis of F2 populations with the 56 pairs of prim-ers showed that microsatellite markers bnlg197 and umc l012 were linked with the male sterility gene．The genet-ic distance between marker bnlg197 and the male sterility gene in the two different F2 populations were 7 cM and 14.5 cM respectively. The genetic distance between marker umcl012 and the male sterility gene in the 138 plants was 28.5 cM．Thus the male sterility gene was located on chromosome 3L．