Month: September 2022

ELUSIVE GENE. "The search for the elusive primary sex determining gene will be extremely difficult and will be hampered by the sex differentiation genes acting downstream." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

LABILE SEXUAL IDENTITY. "Some plants, whether basically hermaphroditic, monoecious or dioecious, have extremely labile sex systems. These may be a result of an inability to control sex precisely in a complex environment or because lability confers an adaptive advantage." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

STRESS AND SEX SEPARATION. "Stress conditions and consequent resource limitations, such that hermaphrodites were unable to maintain both sex functions, might favour the separation of the sexes or might magnify the effects of inbreeding depression also favouring sex separation." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

HORMONAL TRIGGER. "It is probable that sex in M. annua is brought about by modification of the plant hormone biosynthetic pathways." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

HORMONAL APPLICATIONS. "Sex expression in Mercurialis is sensitive to exogenously applied hormones, auxins having a masculinizing effect and cytokinins a feminizing effect." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

AUXIN AND ZEATIN. "Trans-zeatin, the specific cytokinin responsible for femaleness, accumulates to high levels in female shoot apices, but is undetectable as a free base in male shoot apices (trans-zeatin riboside accumulating instead) whilst auxin levels (IAA) are three to six times higher in male flowers than female flowers." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

INDUCED GENDER. "Male flowers can be induced to form on genetically female plants by the application of the weak synthetic auxin, alpha (2-chlorophenylthio) propionic acid." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION. "There seems to be little consensus on the effects of the various plant hormones on sex expression in plants, again arguing that the systems have evolved independently." https://lnkd.in/gb3zS32 View in LinkedIn

A CASE STUDY of complex sex gene evolution in the garden asparagus. This lovely study illustrates the subtlety and complexity of sex gene evolution in a vegetable well known to most of us. I hope that you will never again see the humble asparagus in the same light, but rather marvel at the ingenuity in common creatures. https://lnkd.in/gKA5C8N View in LinkedIn

SEX CHANGE. “How asparagus recently changed its lifestyle from hermaphroditism to distinct males and females.” https://lnkd.in/gKA5C8N View in LinkedIn