Abstract

Polyploidy (the duplication of whole genomes) is often associated with extreme climates and can provide the raw material for rapid adaptation. However new polyploids need to overcome one critical challenge – polyploidy itself. Polyploidy is a huge stress on a cell and can lead to dramatic genomic changes that are grouped under the umbrella term of “genome shock”. These include, major chromosome rearrangements, the upregulation of transposable elements and subgenome dominance in gene expression. The vast majority of these observations have been made in crop species, which can confound changes associated with polyploidy with domestication. Here, I investigated the natural polyploid hybrid Arabidopsis suecica. Through generating a chromosome level assembly and examining populations of A. suecica, its ancestral species A. thaliana and A. arenosa and artificial A. suecica generated de novo in a lab environment, I looked for evidence of dramatic changes in A. suecica relative to its ancestral species, and how natural polyploids may differ from domestic ones.