Evolutionary Genetics of Genome Merger and Doubling in Plants

Polyploidy is a common mode of evolution in flowering plants. The profound effects of polyploidy on gene expression appear to he caused more by hybridity than by genome doubling. Epigenetic mechanisms underlying genome-wide changes in expression are as yet poorly understood; only methylation has received much study, and its importance varies among polyploids. Genetic diploidization begins with the earliest responses to genome merger and doubling; less is known about chromosomal diploidization. Polyploidy duplicates every gene in the genome, providing the raw material for divergence or partitioning of function in homoeologous copies. Preferential retention or loss of genes occurs in a wide range of taxi, suggesting that there is an underlying set of principles governing the fates of duplicated genes. Further studies are required for general patterns to he elucidated, involving different plant families, hinds of polyploidy, and polyploids of different ages.