Project description:Dioecy is an important sexual system wherein, male and female flowers are borne on separate unisexual plants. Knowledge of sex-related differences can enhance our understanding in molecular and developmental processes leading to unisexual flower development. Coccinia grandis is a dioecious species belonging to Cucurbitaceae, a family well-known for diverse sexual systems. Male and female plants of C. grandis have 22A+XY and 22A+XX chromosomes respectively. Previously, we have reported a gynomonoecious form (GyM) (22A+XX) of C. grandis bearing morphologically hermaphrodite flowers (GyM-H) and female flowers (GyM-F). Also, we showed that foliar spray of silver nitrate on female C. grandis plant induces development of morphologically hermaphrodite buds (Ag-H) despite the absence of Y chromosome. To identify sex-related differences, total protein from the flower buds of male, female, GyM-H and Ag-H of C. grandis at early and middle stages of development were analysed by a powerful label-free proteomics approach on ABSCIEX Triple TOF 5600 platform.
Project description:Papaya (Carica papaya) is a trioecious species, with female, male, and hermaphrodite plants. Because of sex segregation, selecting hermaphroditic plants is vital for orchard establishment due to their higher commercial value. In addition to the costly sexing step, environmental stresses can result in abnormal flower development. However, molecular mechanisms that regulate sex differentiation in papaya are still poorly known. Thus, this study aimed to identify proteins associated with sex development in female and hermaphrodite flowers of papaya through comparative proteomic analysis. Proteins from flower buds at the early and late developmental stages of three papaya genotypes (UENF-CALIMAN 01, JS12, and Sunrise Solo 72/12) were studied via proteomic analysis via the combination of the shotgun method and nanoESI-HDMSE technology. In buds at an early stage of development, 496 proteins exhibited significantly different abundances between sexes for the SS72/12 genotype, 139 for the JS12 genotype, and 165 for the UC-01 genotype. At the final stage of development, there were 181 for SS72/12, 113 for JS12, and 125 for UC-01. The large group of differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) between the sexes was related to metabolism, as shown by the observation of only the proteins that exhibited the same pattern of accumulation in the three genotypes. Specifically, carbohydrate metabolism proteins were up-regulated in hermaphrodite flower buds early in development, while those linked to monosaccharide and amino acid metabolism increased during late development. Enrichment of sporopollenin and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathways characterizes hermaphrodite samples across developmental stages, with predicted protein interactions highlighting the crucial role of phenylpropanoids in sporopollenin biosynthesis for pollen wall formation. Most of the DAPs played key roles in pectin, cellulose, and lignin synthesis and were essential for cell wall formation and male flower structure development, notably in the pollen coat. These findings suggest that hermaphrodite flowers require more energy for development, likely due to complex pollen wall formation. Overall, these insights illuminate the molecular mechanisms of papaya floral development, revealing complex regulatory networks and energetic demands in the formation of male reproductive structures.
Project description:For identifying genes for sex determination in papaya, digital gene expression analysis by Ht-SuperSAGE (Matsumura et al., 2010) was carried out in flowers from male, female and hermaphrodite plants of papaya. Total more than 9,273,744 26bp-tags were obtained by sequence analysis using SOLiD3 and mapped on papaya primitive sex chromosome sequences. 6 samples examined: male young flowerbud, male mature flower bud, female young flower bud, female mature flower bud, hermaphrodite young flower bud, hermaphrodite mature flower bud
Project description:Zanthoxylum armatum is a prominent plant for food industries. However, its male flowers often occurred in gynogenesis plants, the potential mechanism remains poorly understood. Herein, a total of 26 floral sex differentiation stages were observed to select four vital periods to reveal key factors using RNA-seq, phytohormones and carbohydrates investigation. Male flower was significantly associated with cytokinin and sucrose signals, whereas female flower was initiated by SA, GA1, and ABA pathways. The floral organ identity genes were attributed to ABCDE model. Eleven ZaAP3/PI and four ZaSTK/SHP were exclusively up-regulated in male and female floral development, respectively. 14 DEGs were obtained to regulate the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. Finally, 21 crucial factors were identified in co-expression network from a total of 83 important members. This study provided new insights to explore the regulatory mechanism of floral sex differentiation, which would be benefited to cultivate high-yield varieties in Z. armatum.
Project description:This dataset contains the transcriptome sequence of Zostera marina as produced by Illumina sequencing. Four tissues were sequenced, female flower in late and early stages of development, the male flower, the root and leaf tissue.
Project description:In poultry, in vitro derived primordial germ cells (PGCs) represent an important tool for management of genetic resources. However, several studies have highlighted sexual differences exhibited by PGCs through in vitro steps, which may compromise their reproductive capacities. To understand this phenomenon, we compared the proteome of pregonadal chicken male (ZZ) and female (ZW) PGCs expanded in vitro by quantitative proteomic analysis using a GeLC-MS/MS strategy. The proteins found to be differentially abundant in chicken male and female PGCs indicated their early sexual identity. Many of the proteins up-accumulated in male PGCs were encoded by genes strongly enriched in the sexual chromosome Z. This suggests that the known lack of dosage compensation of the transcription of Z-linked genes between sexes persists at protein level in PGCs, and that this may be a key factor of their autonomous sex differentiation. Male and female PGCs up-accumulated protein sets were associated with differential biological processes, and contained proteins biologically relevant for male and female germ cell development respectively. This study presents first evidence on early predetermined sex specific cell fate of chicken PGCs that will help to understand their sexual physiological specificities and enable more precise sex-specific adaptation of in vitro culture conditions.
Project description:Here, we examine sex-specific gene expression differences during in vitro differentiation of male and female human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into trophoblastic progenitors, as our current understanding of the early events of human trophoblast formation is limited. We perform RNA-Sequencing in 3 female and 3 male hESC lines at days 0 and 5 of BMP4/A/P trophoblastic progenitor cell differentiation. Differential gene expression was performed with DESeq2, and reveals significant sex differences with transcriptomic profiles in hESCs and trophoblastic progenitors, and also with the differentiation process itself.