PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Thomas Lenormand
AU  - Jan Engelstädter
AU  - Susan E. Johnston
AU  - Erik Wijnker
AU  - Christoph R. Haag
TI  - Evolutionary mysteries in meiosis
AID  - 10.1101/050831
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 050831
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/28/050831.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/28/050831.full
AB  - 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.