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Regulating the construction and demolition of the synaptonemal complex

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 23, pages 369–377 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The synaptonemal complex (SC) is a meiosis-specific scaffold that links homologous chromosomes from end to end during meiotic prophase and is required for the formation of meiotic crossovers. Assembly of SC components is regulated by a combination of associated nonstructural proteins and post-translational modifications, such as SUMOylation, which together coordinate the timing between homologous chromosome pairing, double-strand-break formation and recombination. In addition, transcriptional and translational control mechanisms ensure the timely disassembly of the SC after crossover resolution and before chromosome segregation at anaphase I.

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Figure 1: Overview of meiosis and SC structure.
Figure 2: SC initiation and extension in yeast.
Figure 3: SC disassembly in yeast.
Figure 4: SC disassembly in mice.
Figure 5: SC disassembly in worms.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Guo (Stowers Institute for Medical Research) for providing an electron microscopy image and A. Miller for editorial assistance and figure preparation. R.S.H. is supported by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and is supported as an American Cancer Society Research Professor, by the award 118857-RP-05-086-06-COUN.

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  1. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

    Cori K Cahoon & R Scott Hawley

  2. Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

    R Scott Hawley

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  1. Cori K Cahoon
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Correspondence to R Scott Hawley.

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Cahoon, C., Hawley, R. Regulating the construction and demolition of the synaptonemal complex. Nat Struct Mol Biol 23, 369–377 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3208

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