ploidy

Edge evidence

• ploidy enables recombinational repair of damaged DNA RO:0002327

  Extra genome copies provide templates for recombinational repair of DNA damage.

  • DOI:10.1159/000368855 Soppa reviews polyploidy supporting damage tolerance via redundant chromosomes.
• ploidy contributes to long-term survival RO:0002326

  Polyploidy underpins desiccation resistance and large cell sizes observed in extreme polyploid lineages.

  • DOI:10.1073/pnas.0707522105 Mendell et al. document extreme polyploidy in Epulopiscium supporting giant cell size.
• phosphate starvation decreases genome copy number per cell RO:0002212

  Polyploid prokaryotes reduce chromosomal copy number under phosphate starvation.

  • DOI:10.3390/microorganisms11092267 All five characterized polyploid prokaryotic species grow without environmental phosphate by reducing genome copy numbers.
• genome copy number per cell enables growth in absence of environmental phosphate RO:0002327

  Consuming extra genome copies as a phosphate source enables growth in the absence of external phosphate; monoploid E. coli cannot.

  • DOI:10.3390/microorganisms11092267 Multiple polyploid prokaryotes grow without external phosphate by reducing intracellular genome copy number; monoploid E. coli showed no growth without phosphate.
• genome copy number per cell has function genomic DNA as phosphate storage polymer RO:0000085

  Genomic DNA copies act as a phosphate storage polymer that can be consumed under starvation.

  • DOI:10.3390/microorganisms11092267 Genomic DNA acts as a phosphate storage polymer in polyploid prokaryotes.
• ploidy increases segregational drift RO:0002213

  Higher ploidy increases stochastic segregation of alleles on polyploid replicons during division.

  • DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010829 Alleles on polyploid replicons segregate stochastically during cell division, termed segregational drift; shown with experiments and modeling.
• segregational drift causes loss of beneficial resistance alleles biolink:causes

  Segregational drift drives frequent loss of beneficial resistance alleles on multicopy replicons.

  • DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010829 Resistance alleles in polyploid elements are lost frequently versus monoploid elements due to segregational drift.