Food will be served from 12:00; the presentation starts at 12:15
Whole genome duplication (WGD) occurs in all kingdoms and can boost adaptation. But early on, WGD is traumatic to the cell, and often fatal. In autopolyploids (within-species WGD), many processes must adapt to the new cellular landscape. We showed that DNA repair and cell division can nimbly shift, allowing natural polyploids to survive: but what explains the bigger question: how do some polyploids thrive? I suggest that the very challenges that WGD brings provide a hint: these processes control the generation of genomic structural variation. Here I suggest that the post-WGD shakeup—the stumbling process of adaptation to WGD—is itself a generative engine for evolutionary success. That is, WGD-mediated success may arise from early maladaptation to the very same challenges WGD brings. We are now testing mechanisms: in particular, if repair and division errors and centromere/kinetochore coevolution are key missing pieces in the century-long quest to understand polyploid adaptation.
Levi Yant is a professor at the Linnean Center for Plant Biology, Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.