Is Required for Accurate Double-Strand Break Repair During Maize Male Meiosis.

RAD17, a replication factor C (RFC)-like DNA damage sensor protein, is involved in DNA checkpoint control and required for both meiosis and mitosis in yeast and mammals. In plant, the meiotic function of was only reported in rice so far. Here, we identified and characterized the homolog in maize.

Enables DNA Double-Strand Break Formation and Bipolar Spindle Assembly during Maize Meiosis.

The meiotic TopoVI B subunit (MTopVIB) plays an essential role in double-strand break formation in mouse (), Arabidopsis (), and rice (), and recent work reveals that rice also plays an unexpected role in meiotic bipolar spindle assembly, highlighting multiple functions of during rice meiosis. In this work, we characterized the meiotic in maize (; ). The mutant plants exhibited normal vegetative growth but male and female sterility.

Advances Towards How Meiotic Recombination Is Initiated: A Comparative View and Perspectives for Plant Meiosis Research.

Meiosis is an essential cell-division process for ensuring genetic diversity across generations. Meiotic recombination ensures the accuracy of genetic interchange between homolous chromosomes and segregation of parental alleles. Programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), catalyzed by the evolutionarily conserved topoisomerase VIA (a subunit of the archaeal type II DNA topoisomerase)-like enzyme Spo11 and several other factors, is a distinctive feature of meiotic recombination initiation.

Decrease in DNA methylation 1 (DDM1) is required for the formation of CHH islands in maize.

DNA methylation plays a crucial role in suppressing mobilization of transposable elements and regulation of gene expression. A number of studies have indicated that DNA methylation pathways and patterns exhibit distinct properties in different species, including Arabidopsis, rice, and maize. Here, we characterized the function of DDM1 in regulating genome-wide DNA methylation in maize.