page_title: Polyploidy
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Polyploidy / Terminology / Types
caption_attribution_description: English: Distribution of ploidy among organs. Percentage of nuclei at each of the ploidy levels observed (2C–64C) within each organ analyzed. Organs are presented by body segment in descending order of cycle value.
context_page_description: Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes—one set inherited from each parent. However, some organisms are polyploid, and polyploidy is especially common in plants. Most eukaryotes have diploid somatic cells, but produce haploid gametes by meiosis. A monoploid has only one set of chromosomes, and the term is usually only applied to cells or organisms that are normally haploid. Males of bees and other Hymenoptera, for example, are monoploid. Unlike animals, plants and multicellular algae have life cycles with two alternating multicellular generations. The gametophyte generation is haploid, and produces gametes by mitosis, the sporophyte generation is diploid and produces spores by meiosis.
  Polyploidy may occur due to abnormal cell division, either during mitosis, or commonly during metaphase I in meiosis. In addition, it can be induced in plants and cell cultures by some chemicals: the best known is colchicine, which can result in chromosome doubling, though its use may have other less obvious consequences as well.
context_section_description: Polyploid types are labeled according to the number of chromosome sets in the nucleus. The letter x is used to represent the number of chromosomes in a single set:
  haploid (one set; 1x)
  diploid (two sets; 2x)
  triploid (three sets; 3x), for example sterile saffron crocus, or seedless watermelons, also common in the phylum Tardigrada
  tetraploid (four sets; 4x), for example Salmonidae fish, the cotton Gossypium hirsutum
  pentaploid (five sets; 5x), for example Kenai Birch (Betula papyrifera var. kenaica)
  hexaploid (six sets; 6x), for example wheat, kiwifruit
  heptaploid or septaploid (seven sets; 7x)
  octaploid or octoploid, (eight sets; 8x), for example Acipenser (genus of sturgeon fish), dahlias
  decaploid (ten sets; 10x), for example certain strawberries
  dodecaploid (twelve sets; 12x), for example the plants Celosia argentea and Spartina anglica  or the amphibian Xenopus ruwenzoriensis.
caption: Organ-specific patterns of endopolyploidy (from 2x to 64x) in the giant ant Dinoponera australis
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