Poster: Cell Cycle

Abs # 235: The SOLO DANCERS gene encoding a novel cyclin-like protein regulates meiotic recombination in Arabidopsis

Presenter:	Zhao, Dazhong , dxz12@psu.edu
Additional Authors	Li, Wuxing  (A) (B)  Azumi, Yoshitaka  (C)   Liu, Dehua  (D)   Hu, Yi  (A)   Ma, Hong  (A) (B)
Affiliations:	(A): Department of Biology and the Life Sciences Consortium, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA (B): The Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Physiology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA (C): Department of Biological Sciences, Kanagawa University, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, 259-1293, Japan (D): Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.

Proper chromosome pairing, synapsis and recombination ensure normal chromosome segregation during meiosis in the eukaryotic sexual reproduction. A new male and female fertility mutant in Arabidopsis, named solo dancers (sds), is defective in homologue synapsis and bivalent formation, resulting in the formation of 10 univalents instead of 5 bivalents at late prophase I and metaphase I and abnormal chromosome distribution at late stages. The SDS gene is specifically expressed in both male and female meiocytes and encodes a novel cyclin-like protein. We further used SSLP markers to determine the recombination frequency in the sds mutant background. Homozygous sds mutant plants were generated that were heterozygous (L1L2/C1C2) for two molecular markers on each chosen chromosome. The recombination frequency was calculated by analyzing the progeny genotype of the markers. Our results show that the recombination was not detected (e.g. chromosome II) or dramatically reduced (e.g. chromosome V), indicating that SDS is required for normal recombination during meiosis in Arabidopsis.