The genome of Areca catechu provides insights into sex determination of monoecious plants.

The areca palm (Areca catechu) has a monoecious spadix, with male flowers on the apical side and females on the basal side. Here, we applied the multi-omics analysis to investigate the sex determination and floral organ development in areca palms. We generated a chromosome-level reference genome of A. catechu with 16 pseudochromosomes, composed of 2.73 Gb and encoding 31,406 genes. Data from RNA-seq and the assay for transposase accessible chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq) suggested that jasmonic acid (JA) synthesis and signal transduction-related genes were differentially expressed between female and male flowers via epigenetic modifications. JA concentration in female flowers is about 10 times than that in males on the same inflorescence, while JA concentration in hermaphroditic flowers of abnormal inflorescences is about twice than that in male flowers of normal inflorescences. JA promotes the development of female flower organs by decreasing the expression of B-function genes, including AGL16, AP3, PIb, and PIc. There is also a region on pseudochromosome 15 where harboring sex-related genes, including CYP703, LOG, GPAT, AMS, and BiP, were identified. Among them, CYP703, AMS, and BiP were specifically expressed in male flowers.