Crossover heterogeneity in the absence of hotspots in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Crossovers play mechanical roles in meiotic chromosome segregation, generate genetic diversity by producing new allelic combinations, and facilitate evolution by decoupling linked alleles. In almost every species studied to date, crossover distributions are dramatically nonuniform, differing among sexes and across genomes, with spatial variation in crossover rates on scales from whole chromosomes to subkilobase hotspots. To understand the regulatory forces dictating these heterogeneous distributions a crucial first step is the fine-scale characterization of crossover distributions. Here we define the wild-type distribution of crossovers along a region of the C. elegans chromosome II at unprecedented resolution, using recombinant chromosomes of 243 hermaphrodites and 226 males. We find that

SUBMITTER: Kaur T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3872180 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature