Postzygotic diploidization of triploids as a source of unusual cases of mosaicism, chimerism and twinning.

Triploidy is one of the most frequent chromosomal errors responsible for reproduction failure. This paper encompasses, in one conceptual frame, four recent findings in reproduction biology: predominant dispermic origin of triploids, paternal centrosome inheritance, eccentric cleavage divisions of dispermic triploid zygotes and certain intricate cases of mosaicism/chimerism. It is argued that dispermic zygotes, in contrast to digynic ones, are characterized by cytogenetic phenomenon described here as postzygotic diploidization of triploids (PDT).