The Arabidopsis Hop1 homolog ASY1 mediates cross-over assurance and interference

The chromosome axis plays a crucial role in meiotic recombination. Here, we study the function of ASY1, the Arabidopsis homolog of the yeast chromosome axis-associated component Hop1. Specifically, we characterized cross-over (CO) distribution in female and male meiosis by deep sequencing of the progeny of an allelic series of asy1 mutants. Combining data from nearly 1,000 individual plants, we find that reduced ASY1 functionality leads to genomic instability and sometimes drastic genomic rearrangements. We further observed that COs are less frequent and appear in more distal chromosomal regions in plants with no or reduced ASY1 functionality, consistent with previous analyses. However, our sequencing approach revealed that the reduction in CO number is not as dramatic as suggested by cytological analyses. Analysis of double mutants of asy1 with mutants with three other CO factors, MUS81, MSH4, and MSH5, as well as the determination of foci number of the CO regulator MLH1 demonstrates that the majority of the COs in asy1, similar to the situation in the wildtype (WT), largely belong to the class I, which are subject to interference. However, these COs are redistributed in asy1 mutants and typically appear much closer than in the WT. Hence, ASY1 plays a key role in CO interference that spaces COs along a chromosome. Conversely, since a large proportion of chromosomes do not receive any CO, we conclude that CO assurance, the process that ensures the obligatory assignment of one CO per chromosome, is also affected in asy1 mutants.