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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A simple and reliable PCR-based method to differentiate between XX and XY sex genotypes in Cannabis sativa
AU - Riera-Begue, Ainhoa
AU - Toscani, Matteo
AU - Malik, Afsheen
AU - Dowling, Caroline A.
AU - Schilling, Susanne
AU - Melzer, Rainer
PY - 2025/8/22
Y1 - 2025/8/22
N2 - Cannabis sativa is a mainly dioecious plant, which means that female and male flowers develop on separate individuals, which is controlled by an XY sex determination system: females have two X chromosomes and male plants carry an X and a Y chromosome. C. sativa is a crop that has a wide variety of applications, some of which depend on the sex of the plant. Females are, for example, used for the cannabinoid production, as cannabinoids are produced in the female inflorescence. However, while adult C. sativa individuals present high sexual dimorphism, it is not possible to phenotypically distinguish male and female plants before flowering. Here we present the identification of a highly conserved sex marker, CsPDS5, and the development of a robust, reliable and affordable PCR-based method to determine the sex genotype. In contrast to other sex genotyping methods, our approach relies on a gene polymorphic between the X and Y chromosomes and therefore requires only a single PCR with one pair of primers. The method was tested in 14 hemp-type cultivars and 6 crosses, with different tissues and developmental stages, on more than 500 samples, with 100% accuracy. Our assay allows early sex identification and hemp selection, which is useful for both research and industrial purposes. Finally, the pipeline presented here to identify genes polymorphic between the X and Y chromosomes can serve to discover new sex markers, not only in C. sativa but also in other dioecious plants and other organisms with 2 sexes.
AB - Cannabis sativa is a mainly dioecious plant, which means that female and male flowers develop on separate individuals, which is controlled by an XY sex determination system: females have two X chromosomes and male plants carry an X and a Y chromosome. C. sativa is a crop that has a wide variety of applications, some of which depend on the sex of the plant. Females are, for example, used for the cannabinoid production, as cannabinoids are produced in the female inflorescence. However, while adult C. sativa individuals present high sexual dimorphism, it is not possible to phenotypically distinguish male and female plants before flowering. Here we present the identification of a highly conserved sex marker, CsPDS5, and the development of a robust, reliable and affordable PCR-based method to determine the sex genotype. In contrast to other sex genotyping methods, our approach relies on a gene polymorphic between the X and Y chromosomes and therefore requires only a single PCR with one pair of primers. The method was tested in 14 hemp-type cultivars and 6 crosses, with different tissues and developmental stages, on more than 500 samples, with 100% accuracy. Our assay allows early sex identification and hemp selection, which is useful for both research and industrial purposes. Finally, the pipeline presented here to identify genes polymorphic between the X and Y chromosomes can serve to discover new sex markers, not only in C. sativa but also in other dioecious plants and other organisms with 2 sexes.
KW - Sex marker
KW - Sex chromosome
KW - Cannabis sativa
KW - TaqMan
KW - CAPS
KW - Sex determination
KW - Hemp
KW - Dioecious
U2 - 10.1007/s00425-025-04804-z
DO - 10.1007/s00425-025-04804-z
M3 - Journal article
VL - 262
JO - Planta
JF - Planta
SN - 0032-0935
IS - 4
M1 - 87
ER -