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Does Ploidy Level Directly Control Cell Size? Counterevidence from Arabidopsis Genetics

Ploidy level affects cell size in many organisms, and ploidy-dependent cell enlargement has been used to breed many useful organisms. However, how polyploidy affects cell size remains unknown. Previous studies have explored changes in transcriptome data caused by polyploidy, but have not been succes...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Tsukaya, Hirokazu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3861520/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24349549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083729
Descripción
Sumario:Ploidy level affects cell size in many organisms, and ploidy-dependent cell enlargement has been used to breed many useful organisms. However, how polyploidy affects cell size remains unknown. Previous studies have explored changes in transcriptome data caused by polyploidy, but have not been successful. The most naïve theory explaining ploidy-dependent cell enlargement is that increases in gene copy number increase the amount of protein, which in turn increases the cell volume. This hypothesis can be evaluated by examining whether any strains, mutants, or transgenics show the same cell size before and after a tetraploidization event. I performed this experiment by tetraploidizing various mutants and transgenics of Arabidopsis thaliana, which show a wide range in cell size, and found that the ploidy-dependent increase in cell volume is genetically regulated. This result is not in agreement with the theory described above.