Playing for half the deck: the molecular biology of meiosis.
Meiosis reduces the number of chromosomes carried by a diploid organism by half, partitioning precisely one haploid genome into each gamete. The basic events of meiosis reflect three meiosis-specific processes: first, pairing and synapsis of homologous chromosomes; second, high-frequency, precisely controlled, reciprocal crossover; third, the regulation of sister-chromatid cohesion (SCC), such that during anaphase I, SCC is released along the chromosome arms, but not at the centromeres. The failure of any of these processes can result in aneuploidy or a failure of meiotic segregation.
Champion
Mia D
MD
Stowers Institute for Medical Research, 1000 East 50th Street, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA.
Hawley
R Scott
RS
D000818:Animals; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D006801:Humans; D008540:Meiosis; D008677:Metaphase; D008954:Models, Biological; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange; D014960:X Chromosome