Whats the point of triploid tissue?
Natural selection may support a structure either when it confers an advantage, or when it does not confer a disadvantage i.e. the effect is neutral. The retention of such a pool of neutral characters may confer some advantage if environmental conditions change. Polyploid tissues are thought to divert nutrients from diploid tissues and to have a higher rate of protein synthesis. This would lead to a higher level of enzyme production which would lead to a quicker synthesis of starch from the monosaccharides. If this is the case, a polyploid endosperm (often triploid, but which may have a higher ploidy level) would accumulate and store nutrients which can then be released to the embryo at germination.
