DNA methylation is involved in sex determination in spinach

Abstract

Abstract To explore whether DNA methylation plays different roles in the spinach development of individual male and female dioecious plants, methylation sensitivity amplification polymorphism (MSAP) was used to assess differential cytosine CpG methylation profiles of CCGG motifs of the spinach. 16 pairs of amplification primers were selected, A total of 434 DNA fragments, of which 134 methylated fragments were detected in the male and female plants. The relative ratios of the methylated sites did have sex-specific differences, which was 28.8% and 33% in the male and female. In addition, 32 sex-specific cytosine methylation bands were obtained, 15 fragments were male specific and 17 fragments were female specific. The level of cytosine methylation on CCGG was higher in female genomes than male genomes. The methylation level of CG island was involved in the sex determination and the differentiation process of spinach, which provided information for revealing the sex determination of spinach.