Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics AS CR v. v. i., Kralovopolska 135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic.
BMC Plant Biol. 2010 Sep 20;10:208. doi: 10.1186/1471-2229-10-208.
Prior to this study, no differences in gene expression between male and female dioecious plants in the vegetative state had been detected. Among dioecious plants displaying sexual dimorphism, Silene latifolia is one of the most studied species. Although many sexually dimorphic traits have been described in S. latifolia, all of them are quantitative, and they usually become apparent only after the initiation of flowering.
We present RT-PCR-based evidence that in S. latifolia, sexual dimorphism in gene expression is present long before the initiation of flowering. We describe three ESTs that show sex-specific (two male specific and one female specific) transcription at the rosette stage before the first flowering season.
To our knowledge, this study provides the first molecular evidence of early pre-flowering sexual dimorphism in angiosperms.
在此项研究之前，尚未检测到处于营养生长状态的雌雄异株植物之间的基因表达存在差异。在表现出性二态性的雌雄异株植物中，长叶婆婆纳是研究最多的物种之一。尽管在长叶婆婆纳中已经描述了许多性二态性特征，但它们都是定量的，并且通常只有在开花开始后才变得明显。
我们提供了基于 RT-PCR 的证据，表明在长叶婆婆纳中，基因表达的性二态性早在开花之前就存在。我们描述了三个 EST，它们在第一个开花季节前的莲座阶段表现出性别特异性（两个雄性特异性和一个雌性特异性）转录。
据我们所知，这项研究首次提供了被子植物早期开花前性二态性的分子证据。
