Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is the dominant DNA double strand break (DSB) repair pathway and involves several repair proteins such as Ku, DNA-PKcs, and XRCC4. It has been experimentally shown that the choice of NHEJ proteins is determined by the complexity of DSB. In this paper, we built a mathematical model, based on published data, to study how NHEJ depends on the damage complexity. Und...

The alignment of homologous chromosomes that occurs early during prophase of meiosis usually occurs in two stages: a pairing stage where the homologs are roughly aligned and a synapsis stage where homologous chromosomes are aligned precisely and held together by a specialized structure, the synaptonemal complex (SC). Meiosis culminates in the segregation of homologous chromosomes that have been...

Centromeres congregate into a large cluster called the chromocenter during Drosophila oogenesis. Two recent studies now define a function and a genetic basis for this remarkable structure.

Meiotic recombination occurs as a programmed event that initiates by the formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that give rise to the formation of crossovers that are observed as chiasmata. Chiasmata are essential for the accurate chromosome segregation and the generation of new combinations of parental alleles. Some treatments that provoke exogenous DSBs also lead to alterations in the r...

During meiotic prophase, telomeres actively attach themselves to the nuclear envelope and cluster in an arrangement called the bouquet. The bouquet is unique to meiosis, highly conserved, and thought to facilitate homologous chromosome synapsis. Analy sis of three-dimensional fluorescence in situ hybridization (3-D FISH) image data has been employed to characterize the bouquet in fixed pollen m...

Reciprocal crossing over and independent assortment of chromosomes during meiosis generate most of the genetic variation in sexually reproducing organisms. In barley, crossovers are confined primarily to distal regions of the chromosomes, which means that a substantial proportion of the genes of this crop rarely, if ever, engage in recombination events. There is potentially much to be gained by...

The TAM1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is expressed specifically during meiosis and encodes a protein that localizes to the ends of meiotic chromosomes. In a tam1 null mutant, there is an increase in the frequency of chromosomes that fail to recombine and an associated increase in homolog nondisjunction at meiosis I. The tam1 mutant also displays an increased frequency of precocious separati...

Meiosis involves a dramatic reorganization of the genetic material, along with changes in the architecture of the nucleoplasm and cytoplasm. In the opisthokonts, nuclear envelope and meiotic chromosome behavior are coordinated by forces generated in the cytoplasm and transferred to the nucleus by the nuclear-envelope protein linkers SUN and KASH. During meiotic prophase I, the telomere bouquet ...

Transposition of Mu is strictly dependent on a specific orientation of the left (L) and right (R) ends of Mu and a distant enhancer site (E) located on supercoiled DNA. Five DNA crossings are trapped in the three-site synapse, two of which are contributed by the interwrapping of L and R. To determine the contribution of E to the interwrapping of Mu ends, we examined the topology of the LR synap...