Skip to main content
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1986 Apr;112(4):947–962. doi: 10.1093/genetics/112.4.947

The Evolution of Restricted Recombination and the Accumulation of Repeated DNA Sequences

Brian Charlesworth 1, Charles H Langley 1, Wolfgang Stephan 1
PMCID: PMC1202788  PMID: 3957013

Abstract

We suggest hypotheses to account for two major features of chromosomal organization in higher eukaryotes. The first of these is the general restriction of crossing over in the neighborhood of centromeres and telomeres. We propose that this is a consequence of selection for reduced rates of unequal exchange between repeated DNA sequences for which the copy number is subject to stabilizing selection: microtubule binding sites, in the case of centromeres, and the short repeated sequences needed for terminal replication of a linear DNA molecule, in the case of telomeres. An association between proximal crossing over and nondisjunction would also favor the restriction of crossing over near the centromere. The second feature is the association between highly repeated DNA sequences of no obvious functional significance and regions of restricted crossing over. We show that highly repeated sequences are likely to persist longest (over evolutionary time) when crossing over is infrequent. This is because unequal exchange among repeated sequences generates single copy sequences, and a population that becomes fixed for a single copy sequence by drift remains in this state indefinitely (in the absence of gene amplification processes). Increased rates of exchange thus speed up the process of stochastic loss of repeated sequences.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.0 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Blackburn E. H. The molecular structure of centromeres and telomeres. Annu Rev Biochem. 1984;53:163–194. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.53.070184.001115. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dobzhansky T., Pavlovsky O. AN EXTREME CASE OF HETEROSIS IN A CENTRAL AMERICAN POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA TROPICALIS. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1955 May 15;41(5):289–295. doi: 10.1073/pnas.41.5.289. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Felsenstein J. The evolutionary advantage of recombination. Genetics. 1974 Oct;78(2):737–756. doi: 10.1093/genetics/78.2.737. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kubai D. F. The evolution of the mitotic spindle. Int Rev Cytol. 1975;43:167–227. doi: 10.1016/s0074-7696(08)60069-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lindsley D. L., Sandler L., Baker B. S., Carpenter A. T., Denell R. E., Hall J. C., Jacobs P. A., Miklos G. L., Davis B. K., Gethmann R. C. Segmental aneuploidy and the genetic gross structure of the Drosophila genome. Genetics. 1972 May;71(1):157–184. doi: 10.1093/genetics/71.1.157. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Miklos G. L., Nankivell R. N. Telomeric satellite DNA functions in regulating recombination. Chromosoma. 1976 Jun 30;56(2):143–167. doi: 10.1007/BF00293113. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Ohta T. Population genetics of selfish DNA. Nature. 1981 Aug 13;292(5824):648–649. doi: 10.1038/292648a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Roberts P. A. Some components of x ray-induced crossing over in females of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 1969 Oct;63(2):387–404. doi: 10.1093/genetics/63.2.387. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Seabright M., Gregson N., Mould S. Trisomy 9 associated with an enlarged 9qh segment in a liveborn. Hum Genet. 1976 Dec 15;34(3):323–325. doi: 10.1007/BF00295299. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Sturtevant A H. The Effects of Unequal Crossing over at the Bar Locus in Drosophila. Genetics. 1925 Mar;10(2):117–147. doi: 10.1093/genetics/10.2.117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES