Downloaded from http://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/ at CALIFORNIA-DAVIS on February 27, 2020 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Meiotic Recombination: The Essence of Heredity Neil Hunter Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Department of Cell Biology & Human Anatomy, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616 Correspondence:
[email protected] The study of homologous recombination has its historical roots in meiosis. In this context, recombination occurs as a programmed event that culminates in the formation of crossovers, which are essential for accurate chromosome segregation and create new combinations of parental alleles. Thus, meiotic recombination underlies both the independent assortment of parental chromosomes and genetic linkage. This review highlights the features of meiotic recombination that distinguish it from recombinational repair in somatic cells, and how the molecular processes of meiotic recombination are embedded and interdependent with the chromosome structures that characterize meiotic prophase. A more in-depth review presents our understanding of how crossover and noncrossover pathways of meiotic recom- bination are differentiated and regulated. The final section of this review summarizes the studies that have defined defective recombination as a leading cause of pregnancy loss and congenital disease in humans. MEIOSIS AND THE ROOTS OF Creighton and Barbara McClintock (Creighton RECOMBINATION RESEARCH and McClintock 1931), who were able to corre- late cytological and genetic exchanges in maize. he concept of recombination emerged dur- Experiments aimed at understanding the Ting the early 20th century, following the mechanism of meiotic recombination became post-Mendel era of heredity research. Thomas dominated by fungal genetics because of the Hunt Morgan’s formal theory of gene linkage huge advantage afforded by being able to recov- and crossing-over (Morgan 1913) was a synthe- er all four meiotic products.