When Plants Go Polyploid
Plant lineages with multiple copies of their genetic information face higher extinction rates than their relatives, researchers report in Science magazine.
While duplication of hereditary information is a relatively rare event in animal evolution, it is common in plants. Potatoes, coffee, bananas, peanuts, tobacco, wheat, oats and strawberries, to name but a few, all carry multiple copies of their genetic material, in a condition called polyploidy. (more…)