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Nature 403, 840-841 (24 February 2000) | doi:10.1038/35002702

Plant biology: A social stigma

Teh-hui Kao1 & Andrew G. McCubbin1

In many bisexual flowering plants, the close proximity of male and female reproductive organs has resulted in the development of strategies to prevent inbreeding. One strategy, called self-incompatibility, enables the pistil (female) tissue to distinguish between self (genetically related) and non-self (genetically unrelated) pollen.

  1. Teh-hui Kao and Andrew G. McCubbin are in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 403 Althouse Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-4500, USA.

Correspondence to: Teh-hui Kao1 e-mails: Email: txk3@psu.edu & agm3@psu.edu