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X marks the spot: PRDM9 rescues hybrid sterility by finding hidden treasure in the genome

Three recent reports explore how PRDM9 binds to meiotic hotspots within the genome and provide compelling evidence that hotspot erosion leads to speciation.

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Figure 1: Chromosome pairing and its effect on fertility.
Figure 2: Hotspot erosion due to gene conversion.
Figure 3: Hotspot erosion leads to asymmetric hotspots.

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Acknowledgements

Support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas award R1213 (F.C.), the Jeanne F. Shelby Scholarship Fund and R. Lee Clark Fellowship (F.C.), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant DP2HD087943 (F.C.) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Correspondence to Francesca Cole.

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Zelazowski, M., Cole, F. X marks the spot: PRDM9 rescues hybrid sterility by finding hidden treasure in the genome. Nat Struct Mol Biol 23, 267–269 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3201

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