A conserved filamentous assembly underlies the structure of the meiotic chromosome axis.

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Source:

Elife, Volume 8 (2019)

Abstract:

<p>The meiotic chromosome axis plays key roles in meiotic chromosome organization and recombination, yet the underlying protein components of this structure are highly diverged. Here, we show that &#39;axis core proteins&#39; from budding yeast (Red1), mammals (SYCP2/SYCP3), and plants (ASY3/ASY4) are evolutionarily related and play equivalent roles in chromosome axis assembly. We first identify &#39;closure motifs&#39; in each complex that recruit meiotic HORMADs, the master regulators of meiotic recombination. We next find that axis core proteins form homotetrameric (Red1) or heterotetrameric (SYCP2:SYCP3 and ASY3:ASY4) coiled-coil assemblies that further oligomerize into micron-length filaments. Thus, the meiotic chromosome axis core in fungi, mammals, and plants shares a common molecular architecture, and likely also plays conserved roles in meiotic chromosome axis assembly and recombination control.</p>

Detector: 
PILATUS
Beamline: 
24-ID-C
24-ID-E