{"id":18267,"date":"2014-10-27T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T11:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/research\/older-japanese-climbing-ferns-decide-the-sex-of-the-younger-ferns\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:09:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T10:39:49","slug":"older-japanese-climbing-ferns-decide-the-sex-of-the-younger-ferns","status":"publish","type":"research","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/older-japanese-climbing-ferns-decide-the-sex-of-the-younger-ferns","title":{"rendered":"Older Japanese climbing ferns decide the sex of the younger ferns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Do adult ferns get to decide the sex of the younger ferns? Makoto Matsuoka, a molecular biologist at Nagoya University in Japan, led a study of Japanese climbing ferns (<em>Lygodium japonicum)<\/em> and found out that these ferns communicate across generations and select the gender of the younger ferns. Gametophytes or fully grown ferns play a vital role in maintaining a balanced gender ratio in <em>Lygodium japonicum<\/em>. The female gametophytes secrete a pheromone called gibberellin, which encourages the younger ferns to become males. This prevents gender imbalance in ferns and also thwarts them from becoming hermaphroditic. Thus, by maintaining balance between the sexes, Japanese climbing ferns eliminate the need for self-fertilization, maintain genetic diversity, and promote rapid reproduction. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">Read more in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/ferns-communicate-to-decide-their-sexes-1.16214\">Nature<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33313,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"new_tags":[],"series":[],"subject":[2868],"class_list":["post-18267","research","type-research","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","subject-plant-and-animal-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Older Japanese climbing ferns decide the sex of the younger ferns | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do adult ferns get to decide the sex of the younger ferns? Makoto Matsuoka, a molecular biologist at Nagoya University in Japan, led a study of Japanese climbing ferns and found out that these ferns communicate across generations and select the gender of the younger ferns. Read on to find out more.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/older-japanese-climbing-ferns-decide-the-sex-of-the-younger-ferns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Older Japanese climbing ferns decide the sex of the younger ferns | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do adult ferns get to decide the sex of the younger ferns? Makoto Matsuoka, a molecular biologist at Nagoya University in Japan, led a study of Japanese climbing ferns and found out that these ferns communicate across generations and select the gender of the younger ferns. 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