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Bird–nest puzzle: can the study of unisexual flowers such as cucumber solve the problem of plant sex determination?

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Abstract

Unisexual flower development has long been used as a model system to understand the mechanism of plant sex determination. However, based on our investigation of the mechanisms regulating the development of unisexual cucumber flowers, we have realized that understanding how organ development is inhibited may not necessarily reveal how an organ is formed. We refer to this problem as a “bird–nest puzzle,” meaning one cannot understand how a bird lays and hatches its eggs by understanding how its nest is ruined. To understand the biological significance of unisexual flowers, we reexamine the original meaning of sex and its application in plants. Additionally, we propose that the fundamental biological advantage for the selection and maintenance of unisexual flowers during evolution is to promote cross pollination.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Peter Nick of Universität Karlsruhe for his encouragement of writing down our opinion on unisexual flower development in an untraditional perspective. We also thank Ms. Na Liu for her assistance in formatting all citations using EndNote. The research on unisexual cucumber flowers was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology (J00-A-005, G19990116), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30070361, 30470842), the Ministry of Education (211 project), and, especially, the International Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CRP/CHN03-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PKU–Yale Joint Research Center of Agricultural and Plant Molecular Biology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China

    Shu-Nong Bai & Zhi-Hong Xu

  2. The National Center of Plant Gene Research (Beijing), Beijing, China

    Shu-Nong Bai & Zhi-Hong Xu

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  1. Shu-Nong Bai
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  2. Zhi-Hong Xu
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Correspondence to Shu-Nong Bai.

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Handling Editor: Peter Nick

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Bai, SN., Xu, ZH. Bird–nest puzzle: can the study of unisexual flowers such as cucumber solve the problem of plant sex determination?. Protoplasma 249 (Suppl 2), 119–123 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0396-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0396-4

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