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Polyploidy, or the presence of two or more diploid parental genome sets within an organism, is found to an amazing degree in higher plants. In addition, many plant species traditionally considered to be diploid have recently been demonstrated to have undergone rounds of genome duplication in the past and are now referred to as paleopolyploids. Polyploidy and interspecific hybridisation (with which it is often associated) have long been thought to be important mechanisms of rapid species formation. The widespread occurrence of polyploids, which are frequently found in habitats different from that of their diploid progenitors, would seem to indicate that polyploidy is associated with evolutionary success in terms of the ability to colonise new environmental niches. A flurry of recent genomic studies has provided fresh insights into the potential basis of the phenotypic novelty of polyploid species. Here we review current knowledge of genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptional changes associated with polyploidy in plants and assess how these changes might contribute to the evolutionary success of polyploid plants. We conclude by stressing the need for field-based experiments to determine whether genetic changes associated with polyploidy are indeed adaptive.

Allopolyploidy, which involves genome doubling of an interspecific hybrid is an important mechanism of abrupt speciation in flowering plants [1-6]. Recent studies show that allopolyploid formation is accompanied by extensive changes to patterns of parental gene expression ("transcriptome shock") [7-15] and that this is likely the consequence of interspecific hybridization rather than polyploidization [16]. To investigate the relative impacts of hybridization and polyploidization on transcription, we compared floral gene expression in allohexaploid Senecio cambrensis with that in its parent species, S. vulgaris (tetraploid) and S. squalidus (diploid), and their triploid F1 hybrid, S. x baxteri [17]. Major changes to parental gene expression were associated principally with S. x baxteri, suggesting that the polyploidization event responsible for the formation of S. cambrensis had a widespread calming effect on altered gene expression arising from hybridization [17]. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed floral gene expression in resynthesized lines of S. cambrensis and show that, for many genes, the "transcriptome shock" observed in S. x baxteri is calmed ("ameliorated") after genome doubling in the first generation of synthetic S. cambrensis and this altered expression pattern is maintained in subsequent generations. These findings indicate that hybridization and polyploidization have immediate yet distinct effects on large-scale patterns of gene expression.