Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, 518120, China.
Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Plant J. 2020 Dec;104(5):1399-1409. doi: 10.1111/tpj.15009. Epub 2020 Oct 27.
Sex differences and evolutionary differences are critical biological issues. Ginkgo is an ancient lineage of dioecious gymnosperms with special value for studying the mechanism of sex determination in plants. However, the major genetic basic underlying sex chromosomes remains to be uncovered. In this study, we identify the sex-determining region of Ginkgo and locate it to the area from megabases 48 to 75 on chromosome 2. We find that the male sex-determining region of Ginkgo contains more than 200 genes, including four MADS-box genes, demonstrating that the Ginkgo sex determination system is of the XY type. We also find that genetic sex differences result in specialized flavonoid metabolism and regulation in each sex. These findings establish a foundation for revealing the molecular mechanism of sexual dimorphism and promoting the development of the Ginkgo industry.
性别差异和进化差异是关键的生物学问题。银杏是雌雄异株的裸子植物古老谱系，对于研究植物性别决定机制具有特殊价值。然而，主要的遗传基础性别染色体仍然未被揭示。在这项研究中，我们确定了银杏的性别决定区域，并将其定位到染色体 2 上的 48 到 75 兆碱基区域。我们发现，银杏的雄性性别决定区域包含超过 200 个基因，包括四个 MADS 框基因，表明银杏的性别决定系统为 XY 型。我们还发现，遗传性别差异导致每个性别中黄酮类化合物代谢和调控的专门化。这些发现为揭示性别二态性的分子机制和促进银杏产业的发展奠定了基础。
