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Agriculture Optional Notes On – Polyploidy – For W.B.C.S. Mains Examination.
Polyploidy, the condition in which a normally diploid cell or organism acquires one or more additional sets of chromosomes. In other words, the polyploid cell or organism has three or more times the haploid chromosome number. Polyploidy arises as the result of total nondisjunction of chromosomes during mitosis or meiosis.Continue Reading Agriculture Optional Notes On – Polyploidy – For W.B.C.S. Mains Examination.
Polyploidy is common among plants and has been, in fact, a major source of speciation in the angiosperms. Particularly important is allopolyploidy, which involves the doubling of chromosomes in a hybrid plant.
Normally a hybrid is sterile because it does not have the required homologous pairs of chromosomes for successful gamete formation during meiosis. If through polyploidy, however, the plant duplicates the chromosome set inherited from each parent, meiosis can occur, because each chromosome will have a homologue derived from its duplicate set.
Thus, polyploidy confers fertility on the formerly sterile hybrid, which thereby attains the status of a full species distinct from either of its parents. It has been estimated that up to half of the known angiosperm species arose through polyploidy, including some of the species most prized by man.
Plant breeders utilize this process, treating desirable hybrids with chemicals, such as colchicine, that are known to induce polyploidy.
Polyploid animals are far less common, and the process appears to have had little effect on animal speciation.
In eukaryotic species—that is, those whose cells possess a clearly defined nucleus—two important processes occur during speciation: the splitting up of one gene pool into two or more separated gene pools (genetic separation) and the diversification of an array of observable physical characteristics (phenotypic differentiation) in a population.
There are many hypotheses about how speciation starts, and they differ mainly in the role of geographic isolation and the origin of reproductive isolation (the prevention of two populations or more from interbreeding with one another).
Polyploidization is a widespread phenomenon, especially in flowering plants that have all undergone at least one event of whole genome duplication during their evolutionary history. Consequently, a large range of plants, including many of the world’s crops, combines more than two sets of chromosomes originating from the same (autopolyploids) or related species (allopolyploids). Depending on the polyploid formation pathway, different patterns of recombination will be promoted, conditioning the level of heterozygosity.
A polyploid population harboring a high level of heterozygosity will produce more genetically diverse progenies. Some of these individuals may show a better adaptability to different ecological niches, increasing their chance for successful establishment through natural selection.
Another condition for young polyploids to survive corresponds to the formation of well-balanced gametes, assuring a sufficient level of fertility. In this review, we discuss the consequences of polyploid formation pathways, meiotic behavior and recombination regulation on the speciation success and maintenance of polyploid species.
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