Polyploidy and genome evolution in plants

Jonathan F Wendel
Email: jfw@iastate.edu

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology,
353 Bessey Hall, Iowa State University,
Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Abstract:

Genome doubling (polyploidy) has been and continues to be a pervasive force in plant evolution. Modern plant genomes harbor evidence of multiple rounds of past polyploidization events, often followed by massive silencing and elimination of duplicated genes. Recent studies have refined our inferences of the number and timing of polyploidy events and the impact of these events on genome structure. Many polyploids experience extensive and rapid genomic alterations, some arising with the onset of polyploidy. Survivorship of duplicated genes are differential across gene classes, with some duplicate genes more prone to retention than others. Recent theory is now supported by evidence showing that genes that are retained in duplicate typically diversify in function or undergo subfunctionalization. Polyploidy has extensive effects on gene expression, with gene silencing accompanying polyploid formation and continuing over evolutionary time.

Elsevier

© 2005 Elsevier Ltd

7 page PDF

Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Citation: Current Opinion in Plant Biology 2005, 8:135-141