Polyploidy and Genome Evolution [Paperback]

Polyploidy  whole-genome duplication (WGD)  is a fundamental driver of biodiversity with significant consequences for genome structure, organization, and evolution.? Once considered a speciation process common only in plants, polyploidy is now recognized to have played a major role in the structure, gene content, and evolution of most eukaryotic genomes.? In fact, the diversity of eukaryotes seems closely tied to multiple WGDs. Polyploidy generates new genomic interactions  initially resulting in genomic and transcriptomic shock  that must be resolved in a new polyploid lineage.? This process essentially acts as a reset button, resulting in genomic changes that may ultimately promote adaptive speciation.

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This book brings together for the first time the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of polyploid genome evolution with syntheses of the patterns and processes of genome evolution in diverse polyploid groups.? Because polyploidy is most common and best studied in plants, the book emphasizes plant models, but recent studies of vertebrates and fungi are providing fresh perspectives on factors that allow polyploid speciation and shape polyploid genomes.? The emerging paradigm is that polyploidy  through alterations in genome structure and gene regulation  generates genetic and phenotypic novelty that manifests itself at the chromosomal, physiological, and organismal levels, with long-term ecological and evolutionary consequences.

Evolutionary Significance of Whole-Genome Duplication.- Genetic Consequences of Polyploidy in Plants.- Meiosis in polyploid plants.- Origins of Novel Phenotypic Variation in Polyploids.- Identifying the Phylogenetic Context of Whole-Genome Duplications in Plants.- Ancient al³2