Identification of male-specific AFLP and SCAR markers in the dioecious plant Humulus scandens

In this study, 17 male-specific amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were identified between male and female Humulus scandens plants. BLAST analysis revealed that 7 of the 17 sex-linked sequences were highly similar to retrotransposons. Two stable male-specific sequence-characterized amplified regions (SCAR) markers were developed. These AFLP and SCAR markers are novel molecular probes that can be used efficiently to identify the genetic gender of H. scandens and may provide a basis for further investigations on the evolution of sex chromosomes.