Polyploidy in the Arabidopsis genus

Whole genome duplication (WGD), which gives rise to polyploids, is a unique type of mutation that duplicates all the genetic material in a genome. WGD provides an evolutionary opportunity by generating abundant genetic "raw material," and has been implicated in diversification, speciation, adaptive radiation, and invasiveness, and has also played an important role in crop breeding. However, WGD at least initially challenges basic biological functions by increasing cell size, altering relationships between cell volume and DNA content, and doubling the number of homologous chromosome copies that must be sorted during cell division. Newly polyploid lineages often have extensive changes in gene regulation, genome structure, and may suffer meiotic or mitotic chromosome mis-segregation. The abundance of species that persist in nature as polyploids shows that these problems are surmountable and/or that advantages of WGD might outweigh drawbacks. The molecularly especially tractable Arabidopsis genus has several ancient polyploidy events in its history and contains several independent more recent polyploids. This genus can thus provide important insights into molecular aspects of polyploid formation, establishment, and genome evolution. The ability to integrate ecological and evolutionary questions with molecular and genetic understanding makes comparative analyses in this genus particularly attractive and holds promise for advancing our general understanding of polyploid biology. Here, we highlight some of the findings from Arabidopsis that have given us insights into the origin and evolution of polyploids.