Boys and Girls Come Out to Play: The Molecular Biology of Dioecious Plants

The majority of the world's flowering plants are hermaphrodite but many of them encourage cross pollination by means of spatial or temporal separation of eggs and pollen, or by genetically-controlled physiological incompatibility. A minority of species has taken the avoidance of self-pollinatio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnals of botany Vol. 86; no. 2; pp. 211 - 221
Main Author Ainsworth, Charles
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Science Ltd 01.08.2000
Oxford University Press
Academic Press
Subjects
BOTANICAL BRIEFING
Dioecy
Evolution
Female animals
Female flowers
Genes
Male animals
Plant reproduction
Plants
Review
Review, sex determination, dioecy, sex chromosome
sex chromosome
Sex chromosomes
Sex determination
Review, sex determination, dioecy, sex chromosome
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The majority of the world's flowering plants are hermaphrodite but many of them encourage cross pollination by means of spatial or temporal separation of eggs and pollen, or by genetically-controlled physiological incompatibility. A minority of species has taken the avoidance of self-pollination to its logical conclusion by evolving two distinct and sexually different forms (dioecy). In a very small number of plants, dioecy has been accompanied by the development of sex chromosomes. From the study of the development of male and female flowers of different species it is clear that there is no common underlying mechanism and that sex determination systems leading to dioecy have originated independently many times in evolution. This Botanical Briefing highlights new information from recent molecular approaches in the study of dioecy.
Bibliography:local:860211
istex:0CDAB24C218A60837F49F989B9E4D1EB643E0020
Received: 14 February 2000 ; Returned for revision: 28 March 2000 . Accepted: 25 April 2000
ark:/67375/HXZ-00XCX46M-S
ISSN:0305-7364
1095-8290
DOI:10.1006/anbo.2000.1201