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The consequences of asynapsis for mammalian meiosis

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 10, pages 207–216 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

During mammalian meiosis, synapsis of paternal and maternal chromosomes and the generation of DNA breaks are needed to allow reshuffling of parental genes. In mammals errors in synapsis are associated with a male-biased meiotic impairment, which has been attributed to a response to persisting DNA double-stranded breaks in the asynapsed chromosome segments. Recently it was discovered that the chromatin of asynapsed chromosome segments is transcriptionally silenced, providing new insights into the connection between asynapsis and meiotic impairment.

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Figure 1: An overview of meiosis.
Figure 2: Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) and the consequences of its failure.
Figure 3: Meiotic silencing as a potential cause of meiotic or post-meiotic failure.
Figure 4: The consequences of asynapsis in male and female meiosis.

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  1. Shantha K. Mahadevaiah and James M. A. Turner are at the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics, Paul S. Burgoyne, Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA.,

    Paul S. Burgoyne, Shantha K. Mahadevaiah & James M. A. Turner

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  1. Paul S. Burgoyne
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Correspondence to Paul S. Burgoyne.

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Burgoyne, P., Mahadevaiah, S. & Turner, J. The consequences of asynapsis for mammalian meiosis. Nat Rev Genet 10, 207–216 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2505

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