Skip to main content
PMC home page
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1997 May;146(1):79–88. doi: 10.1093/genetics/146.1.79

Karyotype Variability in Yeast Caused by Nonallelic Recombination in Haploid Meiosis

J Loidl 1, K Nairz 1
PMCID: PMC1207962  PMID: 9136002

Abstract

Chromosomes of altered size were found in the meiotic products of a haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain by pulsed field gel electrophoretic separation of whole chromosomes. About 7% of haploid meioses produced chromosomes that differed by >/=10 kb from their wild-type counterparts. Chromosomes most often became enlarged or shortened due to recombination events between sister chromatids at nonallelic sequences. By this mechanism chromosome III acquired tandem arrays of up to eight extra copies of the ~100 kb MAT-HMR segment during repeated rounds of haploid meioses. Enlarged chromosomes III were unstable and changed their size during meiosis more often than remaining unchanged. Altered chromosomes appeared also as the products of intrachromatid recombination and of reciprocal translocations caused by ectopic recombination between nonhomologous chromosomes. In diploid meiosis, chromosomes of altered size occurred at least 10 times less frequently, whereas in mitotic cultures cells with altered karyotypes were virtually absent. The results show that various forms of ectopic recombination are promoted by the absence of allelic homologies.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (4.3 MB).

Selected References

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

  1. Alani E., Cao L., Kleckner N. A method for gene disruption that allows repeated use of URA3 selection in the construction of multiply disrupted yeast strains. Genetics. 1987 Aug;116(4):541–545. doi: 10.1534/genetics.112.541.test. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Byers B., Goetsch L. Electron microscopic observations on the meiotic karyotype of diploid and tetraploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Dec;72(12):5056–5060. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.12.5056. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Church G. M., Gilbert W. Genomic sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Apr;81(7):1991–1995. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.7.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. De Massy B., Baudat F., Nicolas A. Initiation of recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae haploid meiosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Dec 6;91(25):11929–11933. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.25.11929. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Game J. C., Sitney K. C., Cook V. E., Mortimer R. K. Use of a ring chromosome and pulsed-field gels to study interhomolog recombination, double-strand DNA breaks and sister-chromatid exchange in yeast. Genetics. 1989 Dec;123(4):695–713. doi: 10.1093/genetics/123.4.695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gerring S. L., Connelly C., Hieter P. Positional mapping of genes by chromosome blotting and chromosome fragmentation. Methods Enzymol. 1991;194:57–77. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(91)94007-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gilbertson L. A., Stahl F. W. Initiation of meiotic recombination is independent of interhomologue interactions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Dec 6;91(25):11934–11937. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.25.11934. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hawley R. S., Arbel T. Yeast genetics and the fall of the classical view of meiosis. Cell. 1993 Feb 12;72(3):301–303. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(93)90108-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hugerat Y., Simchen G. Mixed segregation and recombination of chromosomes and YACs during single-division meiosis in spo13 strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1993 Oct;135(2):297–308. doi: 10.1093/genetics/135.2.297. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jackson J. A., Fink G. R. Meiotic recombination between duplicated genetic elements in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1985 Feb;109(2):303–332. doi: 10.1093/genetics/109.2.303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jinks-Robertson S., Petes T. D. Chromosomal translocations generated by high-frequency meiotic recombination between repeated yeast genes. Genetics. 1986 Nov;114(3):731–752. doi: 10.1093/genetics/114.3.731. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Jinks-Robertson S., Petes T. D. High-frequency meiotic gene conversion between repeated genes on nonhomologous chromosomes in yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 May;82(10):3350–3354. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.10.3350. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Kane S. M., Roth R. Carbohydrate metabolism during ascospore development in yeast. J Bacteriol. 1974 Apr;118(1):8–14. doi: 10.1128/jb.118.1.8-14.1974. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Klein H. L. Genetic control of intrachromosomal recombination. Bioessays. 1995 Feb;17(2):147–159. doi: 10.1002/bies.950170210. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kupiec M., Petes T. D. Allelic and ectopic recombination between Ty elements in yeast. Genetics. 1988 Jul;119(3):549–559. doi: 10.1093/genetics/119.3.549. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lichten M., Borts R. H., Haber J. E. Meiotic gene conversion and crossing over between dispersed homologous sequences occurs frequently in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1987 Feb;115(2):233–246. doi: 10.1093/genetics/115.2.233. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Loidl J. Cytological aspects of meiotic recombination. Experientia. 1994 Mar 15;50(3):285–294. doi: 10.1007/BF01924012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Loidl J., Nairz K., Klein F. Meiotic chromosome synapsis in a haploid yeast. Chromosoma. 1991 May;100(4):221–228. doi: 10.1007/BF00344155. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Loidl J., Scherthan H., Kaback D. B. Physical association between nonhomologous chromosomes precedes distributive disjunction in yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Jan 4;91(1):331–334. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.1.331. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Oliver S. G., van der Aart Q. J., Agostoni-Carbone M. L., Aigle M., Alberghina L., Alexandraki D., Antoine G., Anwar R., Ballesta J. P., Benit P. The complete DNA sequence of yeast chromosome III. Nature. 1992 May 7;357(6373):38–46. doi: 10.1038/357038a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ozenberger B. A., Roeder G. S. A unique pathway of double-strand break repair operates in tandemly repeated genes. Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Mar;11(3):1222–1231. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.3.1222. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Parket A., Inbar O., Kupiec M. Recombination of Ty elements in yeast can be induced by a double-strand break. Genetics. 1995 May;140(1):67–77. doi: 10.1093/genetics/140.1.67. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Petes T. D., Botstein D. Simple Mendelian inheritance of the reiterated ribosomal DNA of yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Nov;74(11):5091–5095. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.11.5091. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Petes T. D. Unequal meiotic recombination within tandem arrays of yeast ribosomal DNA genes. Cell. 1980 Mar;19(3):765–774. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(80)80052-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. RIEGER R. Inhomologenpaarung und Meioseablauf bei haploiden Formen von Antirrhinum majus L. Chromosoma. 1957;9(1):1–38. doi: 10.1007/BF02568063. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Rockmill B., Sym M., Scherthan H., Roeder G. S. Roles for two RecA homologs in promoting meiotic chromosome synapsis. Genes Dev. 1995 Nov 1;9(21):2684–2695. doi: 10.1101/gad.9.21.2684. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Scherer S., Davis R. W. Recombination of dispersed repeated DNA sequences in yeast. Science. 1980 Sep 19;209(4463):1380–1384. doi: 10.1126/science.6251545. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES