Abstracts |
Hybridization has been considered both a creative force in plant evolution and evolutionary noise, and plant biologists continue to evaluate the significance of this common process. In this article, the role of hybridization in generating novelty, from homoploid hybrid species to polyploids, and in the context of genetic, genomic, and ecological features are considered. New techniques are revealing extensive genetic and genomic alterations in hybrids and polyploids relative to their parental species, raising exciting questions about the roles of these changes in altering evolutionary trajectories and ecological interactions and about the long-term fates of species derived through hybridization.
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