Meiosis-induced double-strand break sites determined by yeast chromatin structure
1Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Abstract:
Double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs) occur at recombination hotspots during Saccharomyces cerevisiae meiosis and are thought to initiate exchange at these loci. Analysis of DSB sites in three regions of the yeast genome indicated that breaks occur at or near many potential transcription promoters and that DSBs initiate most, if not all, meiotic recombination. DSB sites displayed deoxyribonuclease I hypersensitivity in chromatin from mitotic and meiotic cells, and changes in chromatin structure produced parallel changes in the occurrence of DSBs. Thus, features of chromatin structure that are established before meiosis play a role in determining where meiotic recombination events initiate.
Related Concept Videos
Fixing Double-strand Breaks
Homologous Recombination
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,...
Meiosis vs. Mitosis
Before the start of mitosis and meiosis I, the cell synthesizes DNA, resulting in two homologous copies of each chromosome. DNA synthesis is...
Fixing Double-strand Breaks
Crossing Over


