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Genetics
Fish Polyploidy
Multiple chromosome sets - naturally occurring in sturgeons, salmonids, and carps, and industrially induced for sterile aquaculture stock.
System: Reproductive Level: Advanced Discipline: Cellular
📖 Overview
Where mammals are strictly diploid (2N), some fish carry 4N, 6N, or 8N chromosome sets. Sturgeons include species at every level. Rainbow trout are naturally tetraploid. Triploid salmon (induced by pressure shocks on fertilised eggs) are commercially preferred because they are sterile - eliminating genetic pollution risk from escaped farmed salmon.
✨ Fun Fact
The white sturgeon is octoploid (8N) - a genomic complexity that makes it one of the most genetically complicated vertebrates ever studied.