Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A multiple of the basic number of chromosomes in a cell.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun genetics The number of homologous sets of chromosomes in a cell.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From diploidy and haploidy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the ending of words such as haploidy, polyploidy etc.

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Examples

  • Note that the genetics of the trait mutation, ploidy, etc. is contained in the second term.

    The Panda's Thumb: EvoMath Archives 2010

  • We will thoroughly teach how DNA sequences determine phenotype, building a solid molecular foundation for such concepts as ploidy and dominance.

    Preparing for a meeting with our usual textbook rep Rosie Redfield 2009

  • We will thoroughly teach how DNA sequences determine phenotype, building a solid molecular foundation for such concepts as ploidy and dominance.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Rosie Redfield 2009

  • This immediately raises the question, what was the intelligences purpose in changing ploidy between these different species?

    Texas Tech - The Real Answer - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • For each of these, there are various ploidy levels, ranging from diploid to octoploid and beyond.

    6. Pearl Millet: Commercial Types 1996

  • The genetic variability commonly observed in these cultures includes variation in phenotypic expression, yield variability and loss of organic potential, and is generally the result of chromosome abnormalities and/or ploidy changes in chromosome number.

    1. Household gardening projects in asia: past experience and future directions 1992

  • Recent laboratory and field research has revealed that the widely planted A. holosericea consists of at least four distinct entities of differing ploidy levels (Moran et al., in press: Maslin and Thomson, in preparation).

    Chapter 48 1990

  • Let us form a REAL FRONT in the fight for new cereals so that we may, united and independent of ploidy levels or genomic makeup, be victorious in the struggle for a greater and better grain production,

    Chapter 12 1989

  • It is for this that we launch a new manifesto, not aiming at strict class alliances, but proposing the formation of a new repository of cereals, regardless of their genomic constitution or ploidy level.

    Chapter 12 1989

  • Potato breeding for combined resistance to tropical pests by the ploidy level manipulation approach: progress in extraction of haploids with male fertility and 2n pollen.

    Chapter 25 1987

Comments

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  • Ploidy is the number of homologous sets of chromosomes in a biological cell. The ploidy of cells can vary within an organism. In humans, most cells are diploid (containing one set of chromosomes from each parent), but sex cells (sperm and egg) are haploid. In contrast, tetraploidy (four sets of chromosomes) is a type of polyploidy and is common in plants, and not uncommon in amphibians, reptiles, and various species of insects.

    _Wikipedia

    February 7, 2008