Kiwifruit are a dioecious species with genetic sex determination that involves genes in a male-specific region of the Y chromosome. One Y-encoded sex determining gene, Shy Girl, also controls sexually dimorphic traits. This property can explain our observation of recurrent recent changes in these genes’ location in related species.
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This is a summary of: Akagi, T. et al. Recurrent neo-sex chromosome evolution in kiwifruit. Nat. Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01361-9 (2023).
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Pleiotropic effects of Shy Girl underpin kiwifruit sex chromosome evolution. Nat. Plants 9, 381–382 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01379-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01379-z
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