Dioecy in Flowering Plants: From the First Observations of Prospero Alpini in the XVI Century to the Most Recent Advances in the Genomics Era

Prospero Alpini was an Italian physician, botanist and scientist. Born in Marostica, the Republic of Venice, his youth he served Milanese army, but 1574 decided to study medicine at University Padova, where graduated 1578. After a short period as doctor Camposampiero (Padova, Italy), became personal Giorgio Emo, appointed consul Cairo Egypt. In this way, able devote himself botany. country, from cultivation practices date palm, described for first time sexual dimorphism plants, later adopted basis Linnaeus’ scientific classification system. Since then, behavior, termed dioecy, has been other plant species, many advances have made understanding molecular mechanisms underlying phenomenon, especially with advent genomics. Starting brief description Prospero’s life pioneering contribution, we illustrated two main models explaining dioecism. This achieved by taking cue grapevine poplar, which genomics single molecule sequencing technologies played pivotal role advance field.