Crossover interference underlies sex differences in recombination rates.
In many organisms, recombination rates differ between the two sexes. Here we show that in mice, this is because of a shorter genomic interference distance in females than in males, measured in Mb. However, the interference distance is the same in terms of bivalent length. We propose a model in which the interference distance in the two sexes reflects the compaction of chromosomes at the pachytene stage of meiosis.
Petkov
Petko M
PM
Center for Genome Dynamics, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA. Petko.Petkov@jax.org
Broman
Karl W
KW
Szatkiewicz
Jin P
JP
Paigen
Kenneth
K
D000818:Animals; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis; D051379:Mice; D049471:Pachytene Stage; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012730:Sex Chromosomes