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Even in diploid organisms, many somatic cells are polyploid due to a process called endoreduplication, where duplication of the genome occurs without mitosis (cell division). The extreme in polyploidy occurs in the fern genus Ophioglossum , the adder's-tongues, in which polyploidy results in chromosome counts in the hundreds, or, in at least ...
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes ) are diploid , meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each of two parents; each set contains the same number of chromosomes, and the chromosomes are joined in pairs ...
Aneuploidy is the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell, for example a human somatic cell having 45 or 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. [1] [2] It does not include a difference of one or more complete sets of chromosomes. A cell with any number of complete chromosome sets is called a euploid cell. [1]
Polyploidy is also a well known source of speciation, as offspring, which have different numbers of chromosomes compared to parent species, are often unable to interbreed with non-polyploid organisms. Whole genome duplications are thought to be less detrimental than aneuploidy as the relative dosage of individual genes should be the same.
The results from polyploid and diploid cells should be identified and separately recorded from one another. This is because the fitness cost (survival to next generation) of chromosomal instability is lower in polyploid cells, as the cell has a greater number of chromosomes to make up for the chromosomal instability it experiences. [5]
Polyploidy and aneuploidy are common phenomena in cancer cells. [6] Given that oncogenesis and endoreduplication likely involve subversion of common cell cycle regulatory mechanisms, a thorough understanding of endoreduplication may provide important insights for cancer biology.
Whole genome duplication may increase the rates and efficiency by which organisms acquire new biological traits. However, one test of this hypothesis, which compared evolutionary rates in innovation in early teleost fishes (with duplicate genomes) to early holostean fishes (without duplicated genomes) found little difference between the two. [8]
The number of chromosomes in the cell where trisomy occurs is represented as, for example, 2n+1 if one chromosome shows trisomy, 2n+1+1 if two show trisomy, etc. [2] "Full trisomy", also called "primary trisomy", [2] means that an entire extra chromosome has been copied. "Partial trisomy" means that there is an extra copy of part of a chromosome.