Breaking down taxonomic barriers in polyploidy research

Evolutionary biology of cancer

“…Indeed, the degree of aneuploidy and polyploidy in cancers is highly correlated with disease severity [3]; it might be that polyploidy of cancers is adaptive in the same selective context as polyploidy of plants and animals, where it facilitates invasion of harsh environments [33].…”

The evolutionary history of the allopolyploid Squalius alburnoides (Cyprinidae) complex in the northern Iberian Peninsula

“…The success of triploids in nature is mainly related to the effect of heterosis. The maintenance of a permanent heterozygote condition results from the absence of intergenomic recombination and gene redundancy (Comai, 2005), which may be a crucial intermediate step in the formation of even-ploidy sexual lineages (Mable, 2003). The S. alburnoides complex, like other hybrid complexes such as Ambystoma, Rana esculenta and Phoxinus (Berger, 1973;Bogart et al, 1985;Goddard et al, 1989), has a prevalence of triploid females in most populations, accompanied by the loss of normal sexual reproduction.…”

Diagnosing duplications – can it be done?

“…In addition, studies of recent, naturally occurring polyploids and laboratory generated polyploids are increasing our understanding of the rapid changes that follow aneuploidy and polyploidy [34,[76][77][78]. The results of such studies are challenging accepted views of how and when gene duplications occur and why they persist [14,19,[35][36][37]79]. These new data are revealing substantial, lineage specific differences in the frequency and type of duplications that occur.…”

“…These observations led to the prediction that polyploidization will rarely be observed in animals but more frequently in plants. However, with the discovery of many additional polyploid species [35], the emergence of molecular methods in the 1980s and 1990s and the increasing availability of genomic sequence, much of the accepted pre-genomic lore concerning polyploids has been questioned [36][37][38]. This has led to a resurgence of studies of the mechanisms of polyploidization, the physiological conditions that enable polyploids to arise, positive and negative forces acting on neopolyploids and the extent to which polyploidization represents special evolutionary opportunities.…”