Question

What is the importance of Polyploidy.

Answer 1

Polyploids are found to play a major role in genetic, evolutionary and systematic studies. The patterns of multiple origins and development of polyploidy in plants have been of considerable research interest. Recent studies are focusing on the evolutionary consequence of gene duplication in polyploids, gene expression patterns, and comparisons on variations in gene regulation in natural and artificial polyploids.
Polyploidy is the presence of multiple sets of genomes in the same individual. This process has been found to be one of the major causes of speciation and hence evolution. Polyploidy is one of the major evolutionary forces of angiosperm development.

The effects of polyploidy are evident in plant species. Some of them are

diploidization

speciation

Conservation of species

The difference in gene composition

Variations in gene expression