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A new phase in meiotic cell division

The exchange of DNA between pairs of chromosomes is key to sexual reproduction. It emerges that one step in this process — the introduction of DNA breaks by the enzyme Spo11 — relies on condensation of proteins into liquid-like droplets.
  1. Kevin D. Corbett

    1. Kevin D. Corbett is in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.

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Our cells carry two copies of each chromosome, known as homologous chromosomes or homologues, with one inherited from each parent. Sexual reproduction requires the formation of germ cells that have only one copy of each chromosome; the fusion of two germ cells during fertilization restores the original chromosome number in the next generation. Germ cells are formed by a specialized cell division called meiosis, an early step of which involves the segregation of homologues into separate daughter cells. Errors in meiotic chromosome segregation can produce germ cells that have too many or too few chromosomes — a condition called aneuploidy that underlies disorders such as Down’s syndrome and is a major cause of miscarriage. Writing in Nature, Claeys Bouuaert et al.1 highlight a key role for a process called liquid–liquid phase separation in the molecular events underlying this crucial biological pathway.

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Nature 592, 32-33 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00512-2

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