Heterochromatin in plant meiosis
Cong Wang1, Zhiyu Chen2, Gregory P Copenhaver3,4
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Protein Function and Regulation in Agricultural Organisms, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Heterochromatin is an organizational property of eukaryotic chromosomes, characterized by extensive DNA and histone modifications, that is associated with the silencing of transposable elements and repetitive sequences. Maintaining heterochromatin is crucial for ensuring genomic integrity and stability during the cell cycle. During meiosis, heterochromatin is important for homologous chromosome synapsis, recombination, and segregation, but our understanding of meiotic heterochromatin formation and condensation is limited. In this review, we focus on the dynamics and features of heterochromatin and how it condenses during meiosis in plants. We also discuss how meiotic heterochromatin influences the interaction and recombination of homologous chromosomes during prophase I.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Heterochromatin
Constitutive heterochromatin: It is a highly compact region of chromatin that is mostly concentrated in the centromere and telomere. Unlike euchromatin, the amino acid at...
Meiosis I
Meiosis II
The timing and cell division patterns of meiosis differ between males and females. In male meiosis, the centrosomes are part of the formation of the meiotic spindle. However, in oocytes, including that of humans, Drosophila,...
Euchromatin
Euchromatin is the less dense region of the chromatin and stains lighter. Euchromatin contains histone H3 extensively...
Crossing Over
The homologous pairs of sister chromosomes—one from the maternal and one from the paternal genome—then begin to align alongside each other lengthwise, matching corresponding DNA positions in a process...
Position-effect Variegation


