There are still a lot of mysteries about how and why some types of outcrossers are dioecious. Scientists decided to look at the DNA from many different kinds of dioecious plants to try to understand what makes them male or female. There is a lot you can learn from DNA that may not be so obvious from just looking at or growing a plant. A DNA sequence is a lot like letters on a keyboard: the letters by themselves do not mean anything, but when they are put together they can form words. These "words" in the DNA are called genes and they give plants information, such as what shape their leaves will be, whether they make thorns or not, or if they will be male or female.
Scientists compared the genes from several dioecious plants to figure out which genes were important in determining whether a plant is male or female. They discovered that there are several ways a plant can determine gender. For example, there can be genes in the DNA that make plants male or genes that prevent them from becoming female.

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