About this Research Topic
One of the great surprises of plant genome sequencing has been that nearly all plant genomes have experienced whole-genome doubling, trebling, even quintupling in their evolutionary histories.
Its near-ubiquity has advanced polyploidy and its consequences from an interesting curiosity to a central issue in understanding plant evolution. Questions abound, for example about how occasional organisms survive the genetic accidents that lead to polyploidy, how a genome adapts to the polyploid state, and the evolutionary consequences of polyploidy ranging from its impact on organismal morphology to the persistence and radiation of polyploid lineages.
While continuing progress may derive in part from ‘paleo-archaeology’ in additional genomes, new directions are needed to answer questions about the roles of polyploidy in biology. Here, we hope to exemplify, and nurture, integrative investigations of polyploidy and its consequences that exploit recent and ongoing improvements of capabilities of genomics research. Study of entire transcriptomes, proteomes, genomes and indeed populations, in both experimental and natural contexts, may enable us to literally witness responses of genomes to polyploidy, and the consequences of polyploidy for both genome biology and organismal biology.
Its near-ubiquity has advanced polyploidy and its consequences from an interesting curiosity to a central issue in understanding plant evolution. Questions abound, for example about how occasional organisms survive the genetic accidents that lead to polyploidy, how a genome adapts to the polyploid state, and the evolutionary consequences of polyploidy ranging from its impact on organismal morphology to the persistence and radiation of polyploid lineages.
While continuing progress may derive in part from ‘paleo-archaeology’ in additional genomes, new directions are needed to answer questions about the roles of polyploidy in biology. Here, we hope to exemplify, and nurture, integrative investigations of polyploidy and its consequences that exploit recent and ongoing improvements of capabilities of genomics research. Study of entire transcriptomes, proteomes, genomes and indeed populations, in both experimental and natural contexts, may enable us to literally witness responses of genomes to polyploidy, and the consequences of polyploidy for both genome biology and organismal biology.
Keywords: polyploidy, plant evolution, plant genome sequencing
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