Polyploidy: A Biological Force From Cells to Ecosystems

Donald T Fox; Douglas E Soltis; Pamela S Soltis; Tia-Lynn Ashman; Yves Van de Peer

doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2020.06.006

Polyploidy: A Biological Force From Cells to Ecosystems

Trends Cell Biol. 2020 Sep;30(9):688-694. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2020.06.006. Epub 2020 Jul 6.

Authors

Donald T Fox¹, Douglas E Soltis², Pamela S Soltis³, Tia-Lynn Ashman⁴, Yves Van de Peer⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address: don.fox@duke.edu.
² Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Electronic address: dsoltis@ufl.edu.
³ Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Electronic address: psoltis@flmnh.ufl.edu.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Electronic address: tia1@pitt.edu.
⁵ Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa; College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: yves.vandepeer@psb.vib-ugent.be.

Abstract

Polyploidy, resulting from the duplication of the entire genome of an organism or cell, greatly affects genes and genomes, cells and tissues, organisms, and even entire ecosystems. Despite the wide-reaching importance of polyploidy, communication across disciplinary boundaries to identify common themes at different scales has been almost nonexistent. However, a critical need remains to understand commonalities that derive from shared polyploid cellular processes across organismal diversity, levels of biological organization, and fields of inquiry - from biodiversity and biocomplexity to medicine and agriculture. Here, we review the current understanding of polyploidy at the organismal and suborganismal levels, identify shared research themes and elements, and propose new directions to integrate research on polyploidy toward confronting interdisciplinary grand challenges of the 21^st century.

Keywords: cellular polyploidy; endoreplication; organismal polyploidy; polyploidy; whole-genome duplication.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Ecosystem*
Genome
Polyploidy*
Stress, Physiological / genetics

Grants and funding

R01 GM118447/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States