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PMID: 9744869 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

mei-W68 in Drosophila melanogaster encodes a Spo11 homolog: evidence that the mechanism for initiating meiotic recombination is conserved.

Genes & development ·Vol. 12 ·No. 18 ·1998-09-15 ·Pages 2932-42

McKim KS, Hayashi-Hagihara A

Abstract

Meiotic recombination requires the action of several gene products in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster. Genetic studies in D. melanogaster have shown that the mei-W68 gene is required for all meiotic gene conversion and crossing-over. We cloned mei-W68 using a new genetic mapping method in which P elements are used to promote crossing-over at their insertion sites. This resulted in the high-resolution mapping of mei-W68 to a <18-kb region that contains a homolog of the S. cerevisiae spo11 gene. Molecular analysis of several mutants confirmed that mei-W68 encodes an spo11 homolog. Spo11 and MEI-W68 are members of a family of proteins similar to a novel type II topoisomerase. On the basis of this and other lines of evidence, Spo11 has been proposed to be the enzymatic activity that creates the double-strand breaks needed to initiate meiotic recombination. This raises the possibility that recombination in Drosophila is also initiated by double-strand breaks. Although these homologous genes are required absolutely for recombination in both species, their roles differ in other respects. In contrast to spo11, mei-W68 is not required for synaptonemal complex formation and does have a mitotic role.

MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Sequence Animals Base Sequence Chromosome Mapping Cloning, Molecular Crosses, Genetic Crossing Over, Genetic DNA Primers/genetics DNA Topoisomerases, Type I/genetics DNA, Complementary/genetics Drosophila melanogaster/genetics Female Genes, Insect Insect Proteins/genetics Male Meiosis/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Mutation Polymerase Chain Reaction Recombination, Genetic Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genetics Species Specificity Synaptonemal Complex/genetics
Chemicals
DNA Primers DNA, Complementary Insect Proteins DNA Topoisomerases, Type I
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
McKim K S
Waksman Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8020, USA. mckim@rci.rutgers.edu,
Hayashi-Hagihara A
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Article Info
Journal
Genes & development
Abbr.
Genes Dev
ISSN
0890-9369
DOI
10.1101/gad.12.18.2932
Email
mckim@rci.rutgers.edu
Published
1998-09-15
Pages
2932-42
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
8711660
PMCID
PMC317166
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
AF085276
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1101/gad.12.18.2932 PMC Full Text View journal details
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