Q.Fill in the blank: Plant life ______ more often than animals.

Polyploidy — an organism carrying more than two complete sets of chromosomes (3n, 4n, …) — is a chromosomal-number change that is common in plants but rare in animals.

The stem is a translated fill-in-the-blank and the intended fact (a standard genetics point) is about polyploidy frequency. In plants, whole-genome duplication is tolerated well because plants can reproduce vegetatively and self-fertilise, and polyploid plants are often more vigorous or better adapted (e.g. bread wheat is hexaploid, many crop and ornamental species are triploid/tetraploid). In animals, polyploidy is comparatively rare because it usually disrupts the delicate chromosomal balance nee …