The evolution of haploidy and diploidy

Recombination and the evolution of diploidy.

With two copies of every gene, a diploid organism is able to mask recessive deleterious mutations. In this paper we present the analysis of a two-locus model designed to determine when the masking of deleterious alleles favors the evolution of a dominant diploid phase in organisms that alternate between haploid and diploid phases ("alternation of generations"). It is hypothesized that diploidy ...

P-76: Cytogenetic Investigation of Parthenogenetic Mouse Embryos Generated from In Vitro Activated Oocytes by Hydrostatic Pressure in The Presence of Calcium Ionophore and Ethanol

Background: The advances in cytogenetic techniques during the last few years have permitted not only the study of large populations of wild and domestic animals, but also the detection of chromosome anomalies in embryos. Chromosomal abnormalities are the most common cause of embryonic and fetal mortality in mammals. Most reports of chromosome anomalies in parthenogenetic embryos describe numeri...

A Comparison of Haploidy and Diploidy without Dominan e on Integer Representations

Host-parasite interactions and the evolution of ploidy.

Although the majority of animals and plants, including humans, are dominated by the diploid phase of their life cycle, extensive diversity in ploidy level exists among eukaryotes, with some groups being primarily haploid whereas others alternate between haploid and diploid phases. Previous theory has illuminated conditions that favor the evolution of increased or decreased ploidy but has shed l...

Mating systems and the evolutionary transition between haploidy and diploidy

According to the ‘masking hypothesis’, diploids gain an immediate fitness advantage over haploids because diploids, with two copies of every gene, are better able to survive the effects of deleterious recessive mutations. Masking in diploids is, however, a double-edged sword: it allows mutations to persist over time. In contrast, deleterious mutations are revealed in haploid individuals and are...