State Of The Art Of Sex Determination In Bryophytes

Abstract

With the advent of genomic and other omics technologies the last decades have witnessed a series of steady and important breakthroughs in the understanding of the genetic determinants of the different reproductive systems of vascular plants and especially on how sexual reproduction shaped their evolution. In contrast, the molecular mechanisms of these fundamental aspects of the biology of bryophytes, a group of non-vascular embryophyte plants sister to all tracheophytes, are still largely obscure. The recent characterization of the sex chromosomes and genetic switches determining sex in bryophytes as well as emerging approaches for molecular sexing of gametophytes hold great promise for elucidation of the evolutionary history as well as the conservation of this species-rich but understudied group of land plants.