Polyploidy and novelty: Gottlieb's legacy

Nearly four decades ago, Roose & Gottlieb (Roose & Gottlieb 1976 Evolution 30, 818–830. (doi:10.2307/2407821)) showed that the recently derived allotetraploids Tragopogon mirus and T. miscellus combined the allozyme profiles of their diploid parents (T. dubius and T. porrifolius, and T. dubius and T. pratensis, respectively). This classic paper addressed the link between genotype and biochemical phenotype and documented enzyme additivity in allopolyploids. Perhaps more important than their model of additivity, however, was their demonstration of novelty at the biochemical level. Enzyme multiplicity—the production of novel enzyme forms in the allopolyploids—can provide an extensive array of polymorphism for a polyploid individual and may explain, for example, the expanded ranges of polyploids relative to their diploid progenitors. In this paper, we extend the concept of evolutionary novelty in allopolyploids to a range of genetic and ecological features. We observe that the dynamic nature of polyploid geno...