From conservation to adaptation: understanding the synaptonemal complex's evolutionary dynamics

The synaptonemal complex (SC) is structurally conserved across eukaryotes and is essential for a proper progression of meiosis. Despite this conservation, SC protein sequences diverge drastically. In this review, we explore findings on SC protein evolution, highlighting key differences and commonalities among lineages like the Caenorhabditis and the Drosophila genera. We further explore known cases where the SC and its proteins adopt novel functional roles and discuss why knowledge of these cases could be important for the study of canonical SC biology. The existing studies demonstrate that work on the evolutionary biology of SC proteins and functional studies in more diverse meiotic research organisms should play a major role in aiding our understanding of SC structure and functions.