Events

Seminar: The evolutionary significance of ancient genome duplications

All » Previous Events

2011-11-04: By Professor Yves Van de Peer,  VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, University of Gent. At 11:00, University of Copenhagen, LIFE, Auditorium A2-84.11 (3-21), Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg


Many organisms are currently polyploid, or have a polyploid ancestry and now have
secondarily 'diploidized' genomes. This finding is surprising because retained wholegenome
duplications (WGDs) are exceedingly rare, suggesting that polyploidy is
usually an evolutionary dead end. I argue that ancient genome doublings could
probably have survived only under very specific conditions, but that, whenever
established, they might have had a pronounced impact on species diversification, and
led to an increase in biological complexity and the origin of evolutionary novelties.

 

PDF

Back to Overview