A unified model of autopolyploid establishment and evolution.

ABSTRACT: The prevalence of polyploidy among flowering plants is surprising given the hurdles impeding the establishment and persistence of novel polyploid lineages. In the absence of strong assortative mating, reproductive assurance, or large intrinsic fitness advantages, new polyploid lineages face almost certain extinction through minority cytotype exclusion. Consequently, much work has focused on a search for adaptive advantages associated with polyploidy such as increased competitive ability, enhanced ecological tolerances, and increased resistance to pathogens. Yet, no consistent adaptive advantages of polyploidy have been identified. Here, to investigate the potential for autopolyploid establishment and persistence in the absence of any intrinsic fitness advantages, we develop a simulation mo

SUBMITTER: Oswald BP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3775491 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature