1) Polyploidy in plants and animals
2) Types of polyploids
3) Origin of polyploid mutants
4) Polyploid establishment in diploid populations, ploidy coexistence
5) Cytogeography – the study of cytotypes’ distribution
6) Evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of being polyploid
7) Phenotypic novelty in polyploids
8) The genetics of polyploids
9) Evolution of diploid – polyploid complexes
10) Case studies in plants
11) Genome size evolution
12) Methods to study polyploidy
The lecture covers is detail various aspects of genome doubling (polyploidisation): its causes, attributes and consequences for the evolution of (not only) vascular plants. Attention is also given to genome size evolution, endoreduplication and to the methods frequently used to study such phenomena.