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Projects - S (Saminathan) Sivaprakasham Murugesan MSc

Many organisms are polyploid; they have more than two chromosome sets. Polyploidy can yield evolutionary advantages, like increase in body size or seed size, or an increased adaptability. Yet, in some groups few polyploids occur and polyploidisation can cause developmental problems, such as disturbed gene regulation and cell division. We use Nasonia wasps to investigate how polyploidisation affects gene regulation (RNAseq), memory retention, and cell size. We exploit the unique possibility to generate new polyploid lines with RNA interference. This research will yield insight in open enigmas about the evolution of polyploidy.