Polyploidy Essay

Polyploidy in plants play a major role in evolutionary and genetic studies. Polyploidy is characterized by the presence of multiple sets of genomes in the same organism. It is one of the major causes of speciation; thus, is it plays a major evolutionary role in angiosperm development. Its genome undergoes remarkable changes in function and structure through genetic and epigenetic changes. Epigenetic changes are mediated by RNA and chromatic remodeling and occur vie regulatory pathways. Genetic changes occur through deletion, mutations, loss of DNA sequence, transposition, and translocation. There are several significant effects of polyploidy in plants, such as: dipliodization, speciation, conservation of species, difference in gene composition, variations in gene expression, neofunctionalization and subfunctionalization, and …show more content…
Examples include maize and rice. Early studies report that approximately 2-4% of the speciation events in angiosperms were caused by polyploidy. Sympatric speciation in plants was believed to be due to polyploidy. Polyploidy was also involved in the speciation of flowering plants and eukaryotes. The presence of gene redundancy in organisms is because of genome duplication and polyploidy. Polyploidization process is believed to be followed by genomic rearrangement or gene slicing which facilitates diploidization. Polyploidy results to neofuncitonalization and subfunctionalization of genes. Neofunctionalization refers to the acquiring of new functions for the existing genes while sunfunctionalization refers to the process of limiting the functions of the gene. DNA methylation pattern changes and Chromosomal rearrangements are occur greatly in plolyploids and this resulted to variations in the process of gene expression and gene regulation. For instance, changes in Brassica have resulted in morphological