China
June 5, 2018
Role of cytokinin in the regulation of sex determination in Sapium sebiferum (Image by NI Jun)
A Chinese team managed to significantly increase the seed yield of the traditional important oil plant, namely Sapium sebiferum, by some kind of transsexual method.
The team applied the phytohormone cytokinin to alter the sex of the plant flower and they were surprised to find the female flowers were drastically promoted.
This discovery may shed new light on the yield improvement during Sapium sebiferum cultivation.
Sapium sebiferum, whose seeds contain high level of fatty acids, has been considered as one of the most important oil plants. It has been cultivated as a valuable oil plant for more than 14 centuries.
Due to its high oil content of the seed, it was wildly used for the industrial purposes, such as candles, lubricant and resources of the biodiesel.
However, the inflorescence of S. sebiferum contains very high percentage of male flowers. The low female flower ratio significantly limited the yield improvement.
Thus, the study of operating "transsexual surgery" on the male flowers in S. sebiferum would open a new window for increasing the seed yield of S. sebiferum.
This work not only demonstrated that cytokinin can be directly used to increase the seed yield of S. sebiferum, but also provided valuable information related the sex determination in the perennial woody plants.
The research, led by Wu Lifang at Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published in BMC Plant Biology last week.
The research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province, and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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