Abstract
During meiosis, homologous chromosomes are sorted into pairs and are then intimately aligned, or synapsed, along their lengths while a proteinaceous structure, the synaptonemal complex, is assembled between them. However, little is known about how chromosomes first recognise each other1. Here we show, by comparing the behaviour of wild-type wheat and wheat mutant for Ph1 (a suppressor of homologous chromosome pairing), that when chromosomes recognise a partner to pair with, a conformational change to the chromatin is triggered in both partners that is followed by their intimate alignment. Thus, a conformational change in the chromosomes at the onset of meiosis can be correlated directly with recognition.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the UK. The authors would like to thank R. Koebner and S. Reader for providing and creating the wheat lines studied.
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Prieto, P., Shaw, P. & Moore, G. Homologue recognition during meiosis is associated with a change in chromatin conformation. Nat Cell Biol 6, 906–908 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1168
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1168
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