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A plant that reproduces sexually but has clone-like offspring

Nature2026年9月23日正文已收录本站
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The plant Rhynchospora tenuis has no exchange of DNA between parental chromosomes during the production of male and female sex cells. Even so, it still transmits chromosomes and retains sexual reproduction. This unusual system restores parental genetic variants, leading to clonal-like inheritance across generations despite sex-cell production and fertilization.

This is a summary of: Zhang, M. et al. Sex without crossovers mimics clonal reproduction in Rhynchospora tenuis. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11057-7 (2026).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02789-7

‘Expert opinion’ and the figure are published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

References

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