Digestive organs at 3 days development

Rita Cha group project:

Roles of Mec1/Tel1 on meiotic recombination

Meiosis is a specialized cell division program during which a single round of genome duplication is followed by two successive rounds of chromosome segregation, resulting in the halving of the genome. A fundamental difference between the nature of chromosome-metabolism during proliferation versus that during meiosis is the extent of interaction between the two parental homologs. While such interaction between homologs is essential during meiosis, its occurrence mitotically dividing cells is minimal (Figure 1). In most sexually reproducing organisms, meiosis specific inter-homolog interaction requires meiotic recombination that is initiated by Spo11-mediated double strand break (DSB) formation.

Figure 1

Figure 1

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Structure of human Chromosome I during mitotic or meiotic divisions. The intimate interaction between maternal (m) and paternal (p) chromosomes is observed only during meiosis

We study the roles of Mec1/Tel1 in three key aspects of meiotic recombination; (i) regulation of DSB-catalysis, (ii) establishment and maintenance of inter-homolog (IH)-bias, and (iii) regulation of meiotic prophase checkpoint. We address these questions by identifying and characterizing physiologically relevant target of Mec1/Tel1. Utilizing an antibody specific for Mec1/Tel1 or ATR/ATM mediated phosphorylation, we identified several putative targets of these kinases at various states during yeast and mouse meiosis (Figure 2). We are currently in the process of carrying out detailed characterization of selected targets.

Figure 2

Figure 2

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Targets of ATR/ATR proteins during yeast meiosis. The targets (red) are activated during pairing of maternal and paternal chromosome (blue). Targets disappear once the pairing is complete (green staining).

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