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Do minisatellites play a primary role in meiotic chromosome pairing?

Reference	BB/C003500/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Maj Anita Hulten
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Warwick
Department	Biological Sciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	333,821
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	16/08/2004
End date	15/01/2008
Duration	41 months

Abstract

Minisatellites are tandemly repeated DNA sequences that show substantial variation in length between individuals, rendering them excellent tools for DNA fingerprinting in eg. paternity testing and forensic investigations. Sophisticated sperm DNA typing has recently demonstrated that some minisatellites show frequent structural inter-sperm variation and occur in the vicinity of unique DNA sequences, comprising hotspots of meiotic recombination. Current consensus is that minisatellites originate as parasitic by-products of recombination events at these hotspots with no specific biological function per se. The technology applied, however, does not allow differentiation between the chicken and the egg question, ie. does the minisatellite structural variation arise as a by-product of being in close proximity to recombination hotspots, or alternatively, could the hotspots be a consequence of the minisatellite involvement in the recombination processes, governing meiotic homologous chromosome pairing? It is now possible for the first time, to address this important question by direct investigations of human germ cells, using sequential immunofluorescence and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) technologies. If minisatellite DNA sequences associate and co-localise with recombination proteins involved in the development and maintenance of the meiosis-specific pairing structure, the Synaptonemal Complex, this could explain their structural variability and indicate they are the cause of the recombination hotspots rather than the other way round.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Genes & Developmental Biology (GDB)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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