How does polyploidy occur during meiosis?

Polyploids arise when a rare mitotic or meiotic catastrophe, such as nondisjunction, causes the formation of gametes that have a complete set of duplicate chromosomes. Diploid gametes are frequently formed in this way.

Can meiosis occur in polyploid cells?

During the meiosis of newly formed polyploids, related chromosomes (homologous in auto- polyploids; homologous and homoeologous in allopolyploids) can combine in complex structures called multivalents. These structures occur when multiple chromosomes simultaneously pair, syn- apse, and recombine.

What effect does polyploidy have on plants?

Polyploidization has an immediate effect on plant morphology via usually enlarged cell sizes [Müntzing, 1936], which via changes in cellular architecture, regulatory functions and replication times [Bennett and Leitch, 2005; Comai, 2005] may also affect metabolism and growth rates [Cavalier-Smith, 1978].

What does meiosis give rise to in plants?

In contrast, meiosis gives rise to four unique daughter cells, each of which has half the number of chromosomes as the parent cell. These new combinations result from the exchange of DNA between paired chromosomes.

Where does polyploidy occur in plants?

Polyploidy arises as the result of total nondisjunction of chromosomes during mitosis or meiosis. 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.

How do you induce polyploidy in plants?

Polyploidy can be induced in plants by exposing their certain parts, such as vegetative buds and flower buds, to radiations of shorter wavelengths, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, gamma-rays.

What is induction of polyploidy?

The induction of polyploidy is a common technique to overcome the sterility of a hybrid species during plant breeding. Polyploidy in crop plants is most commonly induced by treating seeds with the chemical colchicine.

How do polyploid plants reproduce?

Polyploidy occurs when the father’s and/or mother’s sex cell contributes an extra set of chromosomes through their sex cells. This results in a fertilized egg that is triploid (3n) or tetraploid (4n).

Why are polyploid plants larger?

Large cells are produced by increasing DNA content or ploidy, a developmental strategy employed throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. The wide-spread use of polyploidy during cell differentiation makes it important to define how this hypertrophy contributes to organogenesis.

What are some characteristics of polyploid plants?

Polyploid plants possess three or more sets of homologous chromosomes. The increase in chromosome number in these plants is the result of a genome duplication event.

Where does meiosis take place in plants?

In flowering plants, meiosis occurs in megaspore mother cells (megasporocytes) within the ovules of ovaries, and in microspore mother cells (microsporocytes) within the anthers of stamens.

Where does meiosis occur in most plants?

Meiosis, a specialized cell division to produce haploid cells, marks the transition from a sporophytic to a gametophytic generation in the life cycle of plants. In angiosperms, meiosis takes place in sporogenous cells that develop de novo from somatic cells in anthers or ovules.

Which is the best model for polyploid meiosis?

Arabidopsis is an emerging model for polyploid meiosis. Outcrossing auto and allopolyploids have distinct genotype frequency distributions. Meiosis in first generation polyploids is unstable. Meiosis has adapted in autotetraploid A. arenosa by reducing crossovers.

How is meiosis adapted in allotetraploid a.suecica?

Meiosis has adapted in allotetraploid A. suecica by suppressing homeologous recombination. All newly formed polyploids face a challenge in meiotic chromosome segregation due to the presence of an additional set of chromosomes.

How is meiosis adapted in auto and allopolyploids?

Nevertheless, naturally occurring auto and allopolyploids are common and generally show high fertility, showing that evolution can find solutions. Exactly how meiosis is adapted in these cases, however, remains a mystery.

Can a allopolyploid have segregation in both sub genomes?

In some cases, an allopolyploid can have segregation in both sub genomes, which is a more complicated situation not represented here, but which still generates patterns of genotype frequency distinct from those seen in autopolyploids.