Recent advances in the genomics of polyploid species answer some of the long-standing questions about the role of polyploidy in crop species. Here, we summarize the current literature to reexamine scenarios in which polyploidy played a role both before and after domestication. The prevalence of polyploidy can help to explain environmental robustness in agroecosystems. This review also clarifies the molecular basis of some agriculturally advantageous traits of polyploid crops, including yield increments in polyploid cotton via subfunctionalization, modification of a separated sexuality to selfing in polyploid persimmon via neofunctionalization, and transition to a selfing system via nonfunctionalization combined with epistatic interaction between duplicated S-loci. The rapid progress in genomics and genetics is discussed along with how this will facilitate functional studies of understudied polyploid crop species.

 摘 要 

多倍体物种基因组学的最新进展解答了一些关于多倍体在作物育种中的作用这一长期存在的问题。本文中，作者综述了当前相关的研究报道，以重新审视多倍体在作物驯化前后所发挥的作用。多倍体的普遍性有助于解释农业生态系统中的环境稳定性。本综述还阐明了多倍体作物的一些农业优势性状的分子基础，包括通过亚功能化提高多倍体棉花产量、通过新功能化使得多倍体柿子从雌雄异株开始转变为自交，以及通过结合重复S基因座之间的上位性互作和非功能化过渡到自交系统。本文讨论了基因组学和遗传学的快速发展，以及这将如何促进对尚未探索的多倍体作物的功能研究。

 Takashi Akagi