A transposon-induced epigenetic change leads to sex determination in melon

During the development of flowering plants, sex determination leads to the physical separation of male and female flowers from an originally bisexual floral meristem. Here, in melon, the transition from male to female flowers is shown to result from epigenetic changes in the promoter of a transcription factor, CmWIP1. The data presented are used to propose a model for the control and development of male, female and hermaphrodite flowers in melon.