Significant Progress Made in Analyzing Evolution Mechanisms of Spinach Sex-linked Region in Genetic Breeding Research
Published:13 Jul.2023 Source:Vegetable and Flower Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Recently, the spinach genetic breeding project at the Vegetable and Flower Institute made important progress in analyzing the evolution mechanisms of the spinach sex-linked region. The research paper, titled "Evolution of the spinach sex-linked region within a rarely recombining pericentromeric region" identified the complete spinach sex determination region and analyzed its evolution mechanisms by de novo assembling the XX and YY strains of spinach homologous gametes to obtain a high-quality reference genome.
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a dioecious plant, with a minority exhibiting monoecy, and belongs to the typical XY sex determination system. XX plants express female traits, while XY plants express male traits, making it an ideal model vegetable crop for studying sex determination. The study of spinach sex determination not only provides a theoretical basis for understanding the evolution of sex chromosome in dioecious plants, but also has important scientific significance for hybrid breeding of spinach.
This research was supported by the Youth Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System Project.