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Evolutionary mysteries in meiosis

View ORCID ProfileThomas Lenormand, View ORCID ProfileJan Engelstädter, Susan E. Johnston, Erik Wijnker, Christoph R. Haag
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/050831
Thomas Lenormand
1Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE)–Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)–Université de Montpellier–Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier–Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), campus CNRS, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
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Jan Engelstädter
2School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
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Susan E. Johnston
3Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom
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Erik Wijnker
4Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, the Netherlands
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Christoph R. Haag
1Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE)–Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)–Université de Montpellier–Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier–Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), campus CNRS, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
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Abstract

Meiosis is a key event of sexual life cycles in eukaryotes. Its mechanistic details have been uncovered in several model organisms and most of its essential features have received various and often contradictory evolutionarily interpretations. In this perspective, we present an overview of these often “weird” features. We discuss the origin of meiosis (origin of ploidy reduction and recombination, two-step meiosis), its secondary modifications (in polyploids or asexuals, inverted meiosis), its importance in punctuating life cycles (meiotic arrests, epigenetic resetting, meiotic asymmetry, meiotic fairness) and features associated with recombination (disjunction constraints, heterochiasmy, crossover interference and hotspots). We present the various evolutionary scenarios and selective pressures that have been proposed to account for these features and we highlight that their evolutionary significance often remains largely mysterious. Resolving these mysteries will likely provide decisive steps towards understanding why sex and recombination is found in the majority of eukaryotes.

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Posted April 29, 2016.
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Evolutionary mysteries in meiosis
Thomas Lenormand, Jan Engelstädter, Susan E. Johnston, Erik Wijnker, Christoph R. Haag
bioRxiv 050831; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/050831
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Evolutionary mysteries in meiosis
Thomas Lenormand, Jan Engelstädter, Susan E. Johnston, Erik Wijnker, Christoph R. Haag
bioRxiv 050831; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/050831

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