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News & Views|24 Dec 2025|OPEN
Unraveling the mystery of auxin-promoting femaleness in cucurbits
Liu Xiaofeng1 , Zhang Zhonghua1 and Sun Jinjing,2 ,
1College of Horticulture, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China
2State Key Laboratory of Vegetable Biobreeding, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sunjinjing@caas.cn

Horticulture Research 13,
Article number: uhaf354 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhaf354
Views: 46

Received: 09 Dec 2025
Accepted: 14 Dec 2025
Published online: 24 Dec 2025

Abstract

The female flower gives rise to the fruit/seed and thus directly affects crop yield in unisexual plants. Both ethylene and auxin promote femaleness in cucurbits. However, how auxin regulates sex determination has been an open question over half a century. The recent publication identified auxin response factor CsARF3 as a crucial player in auxin-promoting femaleness, and revealed a reciprocal relationship between auxin and ethylene during female flower determination.