Linacre College

E-mail:
  john.russell@plants.ox.ac.uk

Tel  +44 (0)1865 275140

Last Modified: May 2012

Sex determination in plants.

I study the evolution of sex determining mechanisms in plants.  I use Mercurialis annua as a model system to investigate questions surrounding the evolution of sex determination, a species which shows remarkable diversity in its sexual system, displaying not only monoecy and dioecy, but also androdioecy, a rare mating system in which males coexist with functional hermaphrodites.  In particular, I am interested in how sex determining mechanisms have evolved within the annual mercury clade, how hybridisation and polyploidisation have impacted upon the sex determining mechanisms of the species and how environmental factors may also influence gender.

BBSRC Doctoral Training Grant