In flowering plants, some species have male and female individuals in their population. Their sexes are controlled by the sex chromosome as in animals, however, the mechanisms of sex determination in flowering plants are largely unknown. The sex of Asparagus officinalis (garden asparagus) is regulated by the XY sex chromosome (male, XY; female, XX). In this study, we found a MYB transcription factor gene, named MSE1, is specifically expressed in male flowers by transcriptome analysis. MSE1 is tightly linked to the Y chromosome and expressed in the male organ of developing flowers. Knockout of MSE1 orthologue in model plant Arabidopsis thaliana showed a male sterile phenotype like as female flower in A. officinalis. These data suggest that MSE1 is the sex determination gene in A. officinalis.

【Paper title and author(s)】
Title: MYB transcription factor gene involved in sex determination in Asparagus officinalis
Author(s): Kohji Murase, Shuji Shigenobu, Sota Fujii, Kazuki Ueda, Takanori Murata, Ai Sakamoto, Yuko Wada, Katsushi Yamaguchi, Yuriko Osakabe, Keishi Osakabe, Akira Kanno, Yukio Ozaki and Seiji Takayama
Publication: Genes to Cells (January)