Sex Linked Molecular Marker Gene in Medicinal Plants - Review

Plants have been used as medicinal plants since humans have existed. Paleontologists have found the remains of medicinal plants such as Opium poppies, Cannabis, and Ephedra from around 60,000 years ago. Medicinal properties are attributed due to the bioactive compounds obtained from the plant parts whether it is root, bark, shoot, seeds, flower, berry, or fruits. The metabolites which are obtained from the reproductive tissues or parts of female plants like flowers, fruits, and seeds are discussed in this review. To avoid the resources being wasted on nurturing the male plants, it would be beneficial if one can detect and discard the male plants at the seedling stage. Many plant species are sexually dimorphic which can be seen by naked eyes. However, the determination of the sex of a plant is quite difficult at an early stage i.e. before flowering. There has been a huge up-rise in plant biotechnology and breeding for the development of molecular genetic data. The development of sex-linked molecular marker genes in plants is a great discovery and has been useful in agriculture industries, nurseries, etc. Sex-linked molecular marker genes are used to identify whether the plant is male or female. The male plants are used for pollination and female plants bear fruits, so if it can be determined whether the plant is male or female at the seedling stage then it will be helpful in saving our cost, time, and labor. Only one male plant can be used to pollinate many female plants. Our review paper focuses on some sex-linked molecular marker genes in medicinal important plants which have been identified and are employed in the determination of sex at the early stages of the plant development