Data from: Recently-formed polyploid plants diversify at lower rates

Polyploidy, the doubling of genomic content, is a widespread feature, especially among plants, yet its macro-evolutionary impacts are contentious. Traditionally, polyploidy has been considered an evolutionary dead-end, whereas recent genomic studies suggest that polyploidy has been a key driver of macro-evolutionary success. Here we examine the consequences of polyploidy on the time scale of genera across a diverse set of vascular plants, encompassing hundreds of inferred polyploidization events. Likelihood-based analyses indicate that polyploids generally exhibit lower speciation rates and higher extinction rates than diploids, providing the first quantitative corroboration of the dead-end hypothesis. The increased speciation rates of diploids can, in part, be ascribed to their capacity to speciate via polyploidy. Only particularly “fit” lineages of polyploids may persist to enjoy longer term evolutionary success.多倍体（Polyploidy），即基因组含量加倍的演化现象，是广泛分布的生物学特征，尤其在植物类群中尤为常见，但其宏观进化效应迄今仍存在诸多争议。传统观点将多倍体视作进化死胡同，而近期的基因组研究则表明，多倍体乃是宏观进化成功的关键驱动因素。本研究针对涵盖数百个推定多倍化（polyploidization）事件的多样维管植物（vascular plants）类群，在属级时间尺度上探究多倍体的演化后果。基于似然的分析结果显示，相较于二倍体（diploids），多倍体通常具有更低的物种形成速率与更高的灭绝速率，这首次从定量层面佐证了进化死胡同假说。二倍体较高的物种形成速率，在一定程度上可归因于其可通过多倍化途径形成新物种的能力。仅少数具有高适合度的多倍体支系，方能存续并获得长期的进化成功。