Abstract
Sex chromosomes have been reported in several dioecious plants. The most general system
of sex determination with sex chromosomes is the XY system, in which males are the
heterogametic sex and females are homogametic. Genetic systems in sex determination
are divided into two classes including an X chromosome counting system and an active
Y chromosome system. Dioecious plants have unisexual flowers, which have stamens or
pistils. The development of unisexual flowers is caused by the suppression of opposite
sex primordia. The expression of floral organ identity genes is different between
male and female flower primordia. However, these floral organ identity genes show
no evidence of sex chromosome linkage. The Y chromosome of Rumex acetosa contains Y chromosome-specific repetitive sequences, whereas the Y chromosome of
Silene latifolia has not accumulated chromosome-specific repetitive sequences. The different degree
of Y chromosome degeneration may reflect on evolutionary time since the origination
of dioecy. The Y chromosome of S. latifolia functions in suppression of female development and initiation and completion of anther
development. Analyses of mutants suggested that female suppressor and stamen promoter
genes are localized on the Y chromosome. Recently, some sex chromosome-linked genes
were isolated from flower buds of S. latifolia.
Key words
Sex determination - dioecious plant - sex chromosome
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S. Matsunaga
Department of Integrated Biosciences
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences
University of Tokyo
Kashiwanoha 5-1-5
Kashiwa
Chiba 277-8562
Japan
eMail: sachi@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Section Editor: T. Nagata
