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© American Society of Plant Biologists ADVANCING the SCIENCE of PLANT BIOLOGY This Article Is a Plant Cell Advance Online Publication Centromere Pairing in Early Meiotic Prophase Requires Active Centromeres and Precedes Installation of the Synaptonemal Complex in Maize Jing Zhang, Wojciech P. Pawlowski and Fangpu Han Plant Cell; originally published online October 18, 2013; DOI 10.1105/tpc.113.117846 This information is current as of October 21, 2013 Supplemental Data http://www.plantcell.org/content/suppl/2013/10/11/tpc.113.117846.DC1.html Permissions https://www.copyright.com/ccc/openurl.do?sid=pd_hw1532298X&issn=1532298X&WT.mc_id=pd_hw1532298X eTOCs Sign up for eTOCs at: http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/alerts/ctmain CiteTrack Alerts Sign up for CiteTrack Alerts at: http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/alerts/ctmain Subscription Information Subscription Information for The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology is available at: http://www.aspb.org/publications/subscriptions.cfm © American Society of Plant Biologists ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF PLANT BIOLOGY This article is a Plant Cell Advance Online Publication. The date of its first appearance online is the official date of publication. The article has been edited and the authors have corrected proofs, but minor changes could be made before the final version is published. Posting this version online reduces the time to publication by several weeks. Centromere Pairing in Early Meiotic Prophase Requires Active Centromeres and Precedes Installation of the Synaptonemal Complex in MaizeW Jing Zhang,a,b Wojciech P. Pawlowski,c and Fangpu Hana,1 a State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China b University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China c Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8393-3575 (F.H.). Pairing of homologous chromosomes in meiosis is critical for their segregation to daughter cells. In most eukaryotes, clustering of telomeres precedes and facilitates chromosome pairing. In several species, centromeres also form pairwise associations, known as coupling, before the onset of pairing. We found that, in maize (Zea mays), centromere association begins at the leptotene stage and occurs earlier than the formation of the telomere bouquet. We established that centromere pairing requires centromere activity and the sole presence of centromeric repeats is not sufficient for pairing. In several species, homologs of the ZIP1 protein, which forms the central element of the synaptonemal complex in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), play essential roles in centromere coupling. However, we found that the maize ZIP1 homolog ZYP1 installs in the centromeric regions of chromosomes after centromeres form associations. Instead, we found that maize STRUCTURAL MAINTENANCE OF CHROMOSOMES6 homolog forms a central element of the synaptonemal complex, which is required for centromere associations. These data shed light on the poorly understood mechanism of centromere interactions and suggest that this mechanism may vary somewhat in different species. INTRODUCTION chromosome ends together (Scherthan et al., 1994; Niwa et al., 2000). In maize (Zea mays), the plural abnormalities of meiosis1 In meiosis, diploid cells undergo two rounds of chromosome seg- mutant, which is deficient in telomere clustering, exhibits homol- regation to yield daughter cells with haploid chromosome numbers. ogous pairing defects (Golubovskaya et al., 2002). However, Accurate segregation of chromosomes during meiosis depends on chromosome pairing is only reduced in this mutant and not com- the stable juxtaposition of homologs, known as the formation of pletely abolished, suggesting that the telomere bouquet facilitates, bivalents. In most eukaryotic species, establishment of stable but is not absolutely required for, pairing. Furthermore, com- bivalents requires homologous chromosome pairing, synapsis, and putational modeling suggests that telomere interactions alone fi recombination. To pair, homologous chromosomes must nd and may not be sufficient for pairing of large chromosomes, and recognize each other and align along their lengths. Mechanisms simultaneous interactions at additional chromosome sites may governing chromosome pairing are poorly understood. However, be required to accomplish this (Penfold et al., 2012). studies in several species show that pairing along the entire length Pairing centers are specialized chromosome sites that facilitate fi of chromosomes is preceded by interaction of speci c chromo- pairing of homologous chromosomes during meiosis in Caeno- some regions, such as telomeres, centromeres, and specialized rhabditis elegans and in males of Drosophila melanogaster (McKim, pairing centers (Scherthan, 2007; Stewart and Dawson, 2008; 2005; Phillips and Dernburg, 2006). Pairing centers serve as Ronceret and Pawlowski, 2010; Tsai and McKee, 2011). binding sites for specialized proteins that bring chromosomes In Arabidopsis thaliana, telomeres undergo pairing associated together to enable pairing interactions. with the nucleolus before meiosis (Armstrong et al., 2001), and in Interactions of centromeres that precede pairing along chromo- most organisms, telomeres attach to the nuclear envelope in early some arms were first described in polyploid wheat (Triticum aesti- meiotic prophase I and cluster to form a cytological structure vum; Martínez-Pérez et al., 1999; Martinez-Perez et al., 2001). In called the telomere bouquet (Bass et al., 1997; Harper et al., 2004). wheat, centromeres associate premeiotically in a process de- It has been proposed that telomere bouquet formation facilitates pendent on the pairing homoeologous (Ph1) locus. Subsequently, the subsequent processes of homologous pairing by bringing coupling of centromeres has been described in a number of spe- cies, including budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Arabi- 1 Address correspondence to [email protected]. dopsis,barley(Hordeum vulgare), Brachypodium distachyon,and The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings Drosophila (Kemp et al., 2004; Tsubouchi and Roeder, 2005; presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Tsubouchi et al., 2008; Ronceret et al., 2009; Takeo et al., 2011; Da Ines Instructions for Authors (www.plantcell.org) is: Fangpu Han (fphan@ et al., 2012; Phillips et al., 2012; Wen et al., 2012). In these species, genetics.ac.cn). W Online version contains Web-only data. however, chromosomes enter meiosis with separate centromeres www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.113.117846 and centromere coupling takes place in early meiotic prophase I. In The Plant Cell Preview, www.aspb.org ã 2013 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved. 1 of 10 2 of 10 The Plant Cell yeast, the initial interactions are mainly between centromeres of are not driven by the centromere-specific DNA sequences. Also, nonhomologous chromosomes and are dependent on installation of in maize, unlike in yeast, and Drosophila, a ZIP1 homolog does not ZIP1, the central element of the synaptonemal complex (SC) exhibit obvious localization to centromeric regions during early (Tsubouchi and Roeder, 2005; Tsubouchi et al., 2008). SC de- prophase centromere interactions. By contrast, we found that pendence of centromere coupling was also observed in mouse and centromere pairing requires STRUCTURAL MAINTENANCE OF Drosophila (Takeo et al., 2011; Bisig et al., 2012). Centromere cou- CHROMOSOMES6 (SMC6), a novel component of the SC in maize. pling is important for proper progression of chromosome interactions and, eventually, for correct segregation of chromosomes to daughter RESULTS cells. However, the mechanisms directing centromere interactions remain poorly understood, and, in particular, it is not known how Centromere Interactions Precede Telomere Bouquet centromeric chromosome regions recognize each other to couple. Formation in Early Prophase I of Meiosis in Maize To further understand the dynamics of centromere interactions in early meiosis, we studied this process in maize. We found that To study centromere dynamics in early meiotic prophase, we maize centromeres begin associating at leptotene, prior to telo- performed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments mere bouquet formation. We discovered that centromere pairing using centromeric retrotransposon of maize (CRM) and telomere requires active centromeres, suggesting that centromere interactions sequences as probes. In premeiotic interphase cells, we found Figure 1. Centromere and Telomere Behavior during Early Prophase I in Maize. Premeiotic interphase (A), leptotene (B), zygotene (C), and early pachytene (D). Centromeres (CRM) are red, and telomeres are green. Blue indicates chromosomes counterstained with 49,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI). Bar = 10 mm. Centromere Pairing 3 of 10 to associate. To perform this analysis, we used the 5S rRNA gene sequence as probe, which recognizes a distal region on the long arm of chromosome 2. In leptotene, we always observed two separate 5S rRNA signals (n = 50) (Figures 2A and 2B), indicating that the 5S loci were unpaired. We detected only a single 5S signal per cell at later stages of prophase I when homologous chromosomes are expected to be paired (see Supplemental Figure 2 online). Similar results were obtained using the 45S rRNA gene probe, which recognizes the nucleolus organizer region on the short arm of chromosome 6. All leptotene meiocytes showed two unpaired 45S signals (n = 32) (see Supplemental Figure 3
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