Impact of polyploidy on plant tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses

Abstract

Polyploidy, defined as the coexistence of three or more complete sets of chromosomes in an organism’s cells, is considered as a pivotal moving force in the evolutionary history of vascular plants and has played a major role in the domestication of several crops. In the last decades, improved cultivars of economically important species have been developed artificially by inducing autopolyploidy with chemical agents. Studies on diverse species have shown that the anatomical and physiological changes generated by either natural or artificial polyploidization can increase tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses as well as disease resistance, which may positively impact on plant growth and net production. The aim of this work is to review the current literature regarding the link between plant ploidy level and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stressors, with an emphasis on the physiological and molecular mechanisms responsible for these effects, as well as their impact on the growth and development of both natural and artificially generated polyploids, during exposure to adverse environmental conditions. We focused on the analysis of those types of stressors in which more progress has been made in the knowledge of the putative morpho-physiological and/or molecular mechanisms involved, revealing both the factors in common, as well as those that need to be addressed in future research.

Ecophysiological Differentiation among Two Resurrection Ferns and Their Allopolyploid Derivative

“…Consistent with this, allopolyploids often have increased competitiveness in environments that are harsh or unsuitable for their parent diploids [ 20 , 21 ]. Fixed heterozygosity, intergenomic interactions, and gene expression dosage effects have been proposed to explain the better growth vigor [ 22 , 23 ] or better stress tolerance [ 24 ] observed in allopolyploids compared with their diploid ancestors [ 25 ].…”

“…In addition, compared with diploid parents, polyploids often have higher leaf thickness, higher leaf mass per area (LMA), and more pubescence [ 20 , 28 ], which are traits related to drought tolerance and efficient gas-exchange in arid and semi-arid environments [ 29 ]. Polyploids also tend to show larger guard cells with larger stomatal apertures, and lower stomatal density, which allow for greater water use efficiency (WUE) [ 21 , 24 ]. This maximizes carbon assimilation per water losses, a key factor for adaptation to xeric habitats [ 29 ].…”

First cases of herbicide resistance of Tripleurospermum inodorum in the Czech Republic

“…In addition to the NTSR mechanisms, ploidy level disparity between the R and S might also play a key role on herbicide resistance appearance in scentless mayweed populations. Polyploidisation offers several advantages to the new phenotypes and helps the novel phenotypes adapt easily to rapid environmental changes (Rutland et al 2021, Tossi et al 2022. One of these benefits might be increased resistance to herbicide stress in the R populations.…”

Impact of Polyploidy Induction for Salinity Stress Mitigation in Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill)

“…For instance, these variations overlapped with the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. This implies that the frequency of polyploidy formation in living organisms is driven primarily by external environmental stimuli such as stress, especially at a level of cataclysmic events [ 70 ]. The fact that ploidy number shows remarkable changes in response to environmental stress among plant species suggests that this can be further explored from an adaptation and mitigation point of view.…”