Polyploid plants have faster rates of multivariate niche differentiation than their diploid relatives.

Polyploid speciation entails substantial and rapid postzygotic reproductive isolation of nascent species that are initially sympatric with one or both parents. Despite strong postzygotic isolation, ecological niche differentiation has long been thought to be important for polyploid success. Using biogeographic data from across vascular plants, we tested whether the climatic niches of polyploid species are more differentiated than their diploid relatives and if the climatic niches of polyploid species differentiated faster than those of related diploids.

The Small Nuclear Genomes of Selaginella Are Associated with a Low Rate of Genome Size Evolution.

The haploid nuclear genome size (1C DNA) of vascular land plants varies over several orders of magnitude. Much of this observed diversity in genome size is due to the proliferation and deletion of transposable elements. To date, all vascular land plant lineages with extremely small nuclear genomes represent recently derived states, having ancestors with much larger genome sizes.

Early genome duplications in conifers and other seed plants.

Polyploidy is a common mode of speciation and evolution in angiosperms (flowering plants). In contrast, there is little evidence to date that whole genome duplication (WGD) has played a significant role in the evolution of their putative extant sister lineage, the gymnosperms. Recent analyses of the spruce genome, the first published conifer genome, failed to detect evidence of WGDs in gene age distributions and attributed many aspects of conifer biology to a lack of WGDs.