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Updated: May 29, 2026

Preparation of Meiotic Chromosome Spreads from Mouse Oocytes for Assessment of Synapsis and Recombination
Published on: July 18, 2025
RAD51-associated protein 1 (RAD51AP1) interacts with the meiotic recombinase DMC1 through a conserved motif
Myun Hwa Dunlop1, Eloïse Dray, Weixing Zhao
1Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Abstract:
Homologous recombination (HR) reactions mediated by the RAD51 recombinase are essential for DNA and replication fork repair, genome stability, and tumor suppression. RAD51-associated protein 1 (RAD51AP1) is an important HR factor that associates with and stimulates the recombinase activity of RAD51. We have recently shown that RAD51AP1 also partners with the meiotic recombinase DMC1, displaying isoform-specific interactions with DMC1. Here, we have characterized the DMC1 interaction site in RAD51AP1 by a series of truncations and point mutations to uncover a highly conserved WVPP motif critical for DMC1 interaction but dispensable for RAD51 association. This RAD51AP1 motif is reminiscent of the FVPP motif in the tumor suppressor protein BRCA2 that mediates DMC1 interaction. These results further implicate RAD51AP1 in meiotic HR via RAD51 and DMC1.
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