Abstract
Meiotic DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are associated with recombination hot spots in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and are believed to initiate the process of recombination. Until now, meiosis-induced breaks have not been shown to occur regularly in other organisms. Here we show, by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of DNA, that meiotic DSBs occur transiently in all three chromosomes of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. In a repair defective mutant, carrying a mutation in the RecA homolog gene rhp51, meiotic DSBs accumulate. In contrast to expectation from the genetic map of S. pombe, however, many chromosomal DNA molecules remain unbroken during meiosis.
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Received: 27 February 2000 / 12 March 2000
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Zenvirth, D., Simchen, G. Meiotic double-strand breaks in Schizosaccharomyces pombe . Curr Genet 38, 33–38 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002940000126
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002940000126