Digest: Three sexes from two loci in one genome: A haploid alga expands the diversity of trioecious species*

Abstract

Multicellular eukaryotes exhibit a remarkable diversity of sexual systems; however, trioecy, the coexistence of male, female, and cosexual or hermaphrodite individuals in a single species, is remarkably rare. Takahashi et al. (2021) report the first known instance of trioecy in a haploid organism. In contrast to other known cases of trioecy, the authors report evidence for genetic control of all three sexes by two loci. These results complicate models for sexual system turnover and expand the known diversity of trioecy species in several ways.