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

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

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

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

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

DRIVERS OF DIOECY. "Dioecy is thought to have evolved independently many times. These transitions may have been favoured by the advantage of avoiding self-pollination and the associated inbreeding depression, by the advantage of sexual specialization or by a combination of both." https://lnkd.in/guzeMTD View in LinkedIn

TWO GENE SYSTEM. “Male and female organs are both initiated in developing garden asparagus flower buds, and differences in the timing of cessation of male pistil development and degeneration of female anthers are suggestive of a two-gene sex determination system.” https://lnkd.in/gKA5C8N View in LinkedIn

ANGIOSPERM PATHWAYS. "About 6 % of an estimated total of 240 000 species of angiosperms are dioecious. The main precursors of this sexual system are thought to be monoecy and gynodioecy. A previous angiosperm-wide study revealed that many dioecious species have evolved through the monoecy pathway; some case studies and a large body of theoretical research also provide evidence in support of the gynodioecy pathway." https://lnkd.in/guzeMTD View in LinkedIn

RECENT DIOECY. “In garden asparagus, X and Y chromosomes are cytologically homomorphic, and YY “supermale” genotypes are viable and produce fertile pollen, suggesting a recent origin of dioecy and sex chromosomes in the genus.” https://lnkd.in/gKA5C8N View in LinkedIn