Abstract

Polyploidy plays an important evolutionary role in natural populations. This role can be attributed to a number of consequences of polyploidization that promote phenotypic and/or fitness alterations, such as mutation buffering, increased allelic diversity and heterozygosity, dosage effects, and sub-or neofunctionalization of duplicated genes. Considering the significant challenges, humanity is facing in relation to food supply and climate change, understanding the role that polyploidy plays in enhancing plant tolerance to various types of stress and in expanding the range of conditions for plant establishment may lead to better breeding and crop-improvement strategies. Polyploidy is defined as having more than two sets of chromosomes, and it has long been recognized as a major driver of plant evolution and speciation. A creature with more than two haploid sets of chromosomes is known as a polyploid. Polyploidization has considerably aided plant breeding and agriculture improvement. Polyploidy is likely one of the most important mechanisms of plant adaptation, having been researched extensively over the previous century. It occurs frequently in both plants and mammals. One evolutionary mechanism aids speciation, diversification, and adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Polyploidy is currently an interesting research topic for understanding agricultural plant evolution and utilizing its diversity in crop breeding. The most common use of polyploidy is to overcome or remove sterility in hybrids created via interspecific or inter-generic hybridization or remote cross. Significant economic and societal benefits have resulted from the invention and application of polyploidy breeding. Polyploidy is induced in numerous agricultural plants using diverse ways. The purpose of this paper is to assess polyploidy, classification, and its application in plant breeding