Why does polyploidy give an evolutionary advantage?

Question

I would like to know what advantages polyploidy holds. I have come across a few examples during my research of polyploidy, for example human adults' hearts contain 27% diploid, 71% tetraploid and 2% octaploid nuclei, *Deinococcus radiodurans* can have up to 10 copies of genome, and most of the plants consumed by humans have more than 2 copies.I have no source of any sort for these, but I think they could be advantages: - One of the most obvious one would be resistance to more physical effects. - In the case of plants it might be the increased need for protein construction during the development of the seed.What I would like to ask is whether the ones I wrote **are correct**, and if there are **any other** possible advantage.----------*I have read similar questions but could not find what I was looking for.*

Answer 1

polyloidy allows multiple forms of extremely similar genes to be differentially expressed. If the have evolved slightly different functions, then this allows the organism/part of the organism to use the genes differently and specialize their function.

a bit of a wishywashy answer, but its not a greatly understood phenomena (at least with in individual organs)

feel free to expand the question and i will try to answer as well as i can.

cheers

drsjp