Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Identification of Homologous Recombination Events in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Using Southern Blotting and Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: November 20, 2018
Anatomy of mouse recombination hot spots
Zhen K Wu1, Irina V Getun, Philippe R J Bois
1Genome Plasticity Laboratory, Department of Cancer Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Florida, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA.
Researchers identified and characterized seven new meiotic recombination hot spots in mice, revealing diverse sequence attributes and distinct crossover profiles. This study enhances our understanding of mammalian genome recombination and hot spot regulation.
Area of Science:
- Genetics
- Genomics
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Meiotic recombination hot spots are crucial for genetic diversity but poorly characterized at a fine scale.
- Thousands of potential hot spots exist in mammalian genomes, yet few are analyzed at sub-kilobase resolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and characterize novel meiotic recombination hot spots in the mouse genome.
- To analyze the sequence attributes and crossover (CO) profiles of these hot spots at a sub-kilobase scale.
Main Methods:
- Utilized recombinant inbred strains as a crossover (CO) library for high-resolution analysis.
- Detailed characterization of seven newly identified meiotic hot spots on mouse chromosome 19.
Main Results:
- Identified seven new mouse meiotic hot spots, doubling the available characterized sites.
- Discovered diverse sequence attributes and distinct symmetric/asymmetric CO profiles among hot spots.
- Observed common CO molecules with discontinuous conversion tracts, unlike in humans.
- Found that mouse hot spots can exhibit CO repulsion zones within recombinogenic cores, deviating from quasi-normal CO distributions seen in humans.
Conclusions:
- Mouse meiotic hot spots exhibit significant diversity in sequence and CO distribution.
- The presence of CO repulsion zones suggests a role for local chromatin landscape in regulating recombination.
- These findings provide a refined model for meiotic recombination hot spot function in mammals.
Related Concept Videos
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
Crossing Over
Exon Recombination
Exon shuffling follows “splice frame rules.” Each exon has three reading...

