Drive against hotspot motifs in primates implicates the PRDM9 gene in meiotic recombination

Myers, Simon and Bowden, Rory and Tumian, Afidalina and Bontrop, Ronald E and Freeman, Colin and MacFie, Tammie S. and McVean, Gil and Donnelly, Peter (2010) Drive against hotspot motifs in primates implicates the PRDM9 gene in meiotic recombination. Science, 327 (5967). pp. 876-879. ISSN 0036-8075

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Abstract

Although present in both humans and chimpanzees, recombination hotspots, at which meiotic crossover events cluster, differ markedly in their genomic location between the species. We report that a 13-base pair sequence motif previously associated with the activity of 40% of human hotspots does not function in chimpanzees and is being removed by self-destructive drive in the human lineage. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the rapidly evolving zinc-finger protein PRDM9 binds to this motif and that sequence changes in the protein may be responsible for hotspot differences between species. The involvement of PRDM9, which causes histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation, implies that there is a common mechanism for recombination hotspots in eukaryotes but raises questions about what forces have driven such rapid change.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Additional Information:	4915/31421
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Engineering > Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Depositing User:	Dr Afidalina Tumian
Date Deposited:	19 Aug 2013 11:42
Last Modified:	19 Aug 2013 11:42
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/31421

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