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Polyploids as a “model system” for the study of heterosis

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Abstract

Heterosis research over the past century has focused primarily on diploid plants and animals. This is despite the fact that most heterotic organisms contain polyploid events in their recent and/or ancient past and various important crop species are heterotic polyploids. We present an argument for the study of heterosis within polyploid systems and give examples of how their study can improve current hypotheses and generate new ones. Polyploid systems allow experiments not possible in diploids but the insights gained must be incorporated into models to explain heterosis at all levels.

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Acknowledgments

Research supported by National Science Foundation grant DBI 0733857.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, 311 Tucker Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Jacob D. Washburn & James A. Birchler

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  1. Jacob D. Washburn
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  2. James A. Birchler
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Correspondence to James A. Birchler.

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Communicated by Frederic Berger.

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Washburn, J.D., Birchler, J.A. Polyploids as a “model system” for the study of heterosis. Plant Reprod 27, 1–5 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00497-013-0237-4

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