News Plants

Genetic battle of the sexes plays out in cukes and melons

Separate gene discovery borrows poppy genes to limit self-sex in mustard plant

cucumber flower

UNISEX MIXER  Geneticists are untangling such puzzles of plant sexuality as how cucumbers grow his and hers flowers on same plant.

INRA

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Two new genetic insights could make plants’ sex more convenient for the people growing and eating them.

Genes that keep a plant from fertilizing itself can be transferred successfully from one species to another across an unexpectedly wide evolutionary gap, says Noni Franklin-Tong of the University of Birmingham in England.