rec, drosophila mcm8, drives formation of meiotic crossoversrec,果蝇mcm8驱动器减数分裂形成的跨界车.pdfVIP

REC, Drosophila MCM8, Drives Formation of Meiotic Crossovers 1 1 2 3 4 1,2,3* Hunter L. Blanton , Sarah J. Radford , Susan McMahan , Hutton M. Kearney , Joseph G. Ibrahim , Jeff Sekelsky 1 Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 2 Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 3 Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America, 4 Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America Crossovers ensure the accurate segregation of homologous chromosomes from one another during meiosis. Here, we describe the identity and function of the Drosophila melanogaster gene recombination defective (rec), which is required for most meiotic crossing over. We show that rec encodes a member of the mini-chromosome maintenance (MCM) protein family. Six MCM proteins (MCM2–7) are essential for DNA replication and are found in all eukaryotes. REC is the Drosophila ortholog of the recently identified seventh member of this family, MCM8. Our phylogenetic analysis reveals the existence of yet another family member, MCM9, and shows that MCM8 and MCM9 arose early in eukaryotic evolution, though one or both have been lost in multiple eukaryotic lineages. Drosophila has lost MCM9 but retained MCM8, represented by REC. We used genetic and molecular methods to study the function of REC in meiotic recombination. Epistasis experiments suggest that REC acts after the Rad51 ortholog SPN-A but before the endonuclease MEI-9. Althoug