The Sense and Sensibility of Strand Exchange in Recombination Homeostasis

Francesca Cole,Michael Lichten

doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004104

Francesca Cole, Michael Lichten

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004104

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Abstract

The Sense and Sensibility of Strand Exchange in Recombination Homeostasis

Highlights

Upon entering a Regency-era ball, a Jane Austen heroine might ask herself, ‘‘Do I stay with my sister, or attempt to secure a partner?’’ The homologous recombination events that occur during meiosis need to make a similar decision, and how they do so is investigated in papers by Doug Bishop, Neil Hunter, and colleagues [1] and Nancy Hollingsworth and colleagues [2] in PLOS Genetics
Crossovers are formed by the repair of programmed double-strand break (DSB) induced by Spo11 [3] and involve the exchange of genetic information flanking the initiating break
Failure to form crossovers leads to aneuploidy or gamete death; as such, crossover frequency and distribution is tightly controlled to ensure at least one crossover occurs between each pair of homologs, that crossovers do not form in close juxtaposition, and that crossover numbers are maintained despite perturbations in the number of DSBs [4]

Summary

Introduction

Upon entering a Regency-era ball, a Jane Austen heroine might ask herself, ‘‘Do I stay with my sister, or attempt to secure a partner?’’ The homologous recombination events that occur during meiosis need to make a similar decision, and how they do so is investigated in papers by Doug Bishop, Neil Hunter, and colleagues [1] and Nancy Hollingsworth and colleagues [2] in PLOS Genetics. Recent studies of crossover control have revealed feedback regulation occurring at multiple steps during recombination progression—including DSB formation [5,6,7] and the crossover-noncrossover decision [8]—to provide robust homeostatic control. While Rad51 has a critical role in meiosis, its own strand exchange activity is not required.

Results

Conclusion