Taking Advantage of Natural Variation in Ploidy Levels

Plant breeders have successfully used ploidy manipulation as part of their ornamental plant breeding programs.  Induced polyploidization has been used to develop plants with larger flowers and fruit, sterile plants, and facilitate crosses otherwise not possible.  Natural variation in ploidy levels offers similar opportunities without having to induce polyploidy, which can sometimes be difficult.  Plant breeders can take advantage of natural ploidy variation to achieve many of the same results as induced polyploidy such as sterility, while often simultaneously making other improvements.  Examples of utilizing natural ploidy variation will be studied including examples from Cotoneaster, Prunus, and others.