Recently, researchers of the Marine Biological Culture Collection Centre (MBCCC, URL: www.mbccc.ac.cn) based at the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) have detected a sex-linked microsatellite marker in female gametophyte of Undaria pinnatifida (Shan and Pang, 2010, Phycol. Res. 58: 171–176. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1835.2010.00575.x)。

The research group led by Dr. Shao Jun Pang screened twenty microsatellite markers that were developed earlier by French scientists（Daguin et al., 2005, Conser. Genet. 6: 647–650）and found this female-specific microsatellite marker (Locus: Up-AC-2A8，GenBank accession no. AY738602.1). This specific sequence was further confirmed to be present only in the female gametophytes by use of a dozen of other gametophyte cultures maintained in MBCCC.

To our knowledge, this is the first sex-related marker ever reported in U. pinnatifida. This discovery will accelerate research in gender identification and shed light on our understanding of the mechanism of sex determination in Laminariales at the molecular levels.

(The arrows indicate the female-specific bands.)