Evolutionary conservation of meiotic DSB proteins: more than just Spo11
- 1Developmental Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA;
- 2Molecular Biology Program, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA
Abstract
Meiotic recombination is initiated by programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) generated by the Spo11 protein. In budding yeast, five other meiotic-specific proteins are also required for DSB formation, but, with rare exception, orthologs had not been identified in other species. In this issue of Genes & Development, Kumar and colleagues (pp. 1266–1280) used a phylogenomic approach to identify two of these proteins across multiple clades, and confirmed that one of these, MEI4, is a functional ortholog in mouse.
Keywords
Footnotes
-
↵3 Corresponding authors.
E-MAIL jasinm{at}mskcc.org; FAX (212) 772-8410.
-
↵4 E-MAIL colef{at}mskcc.org; FAX (212) 772-8410.
-
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1944710.
- Copyright © 2010 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
