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Evolutionary history of the mammalian synaptonemal complex

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Abstract

The synaptonemal complex (SC), a key structure of meiosis that assembles during prophase I, has been initially described 60 years ago. Since then, the structure has been described in many sexually reproducing organisms. However, the SC protein components were characterized in only few model organisms. Surprisingly, they lacked an apparent evolutionary relationship despite the conserved structural organization of the SC. For better understanding of this obvious discrepancy, the evolutionary history of the SC and its individual components has been investigated in Metazoa in detail. The results are consistent with the notion of a single origin of the metazoan SC and provide evidence for a dynamic evolutionary history of the SC components. In this mini review, we recapitulate and discuss new insights into metazoan SC evolution.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Markus Sauer (Biocenter, Würzburg) for the generous support with super-resolution imaging and Nicola Jones (Biocenter, Würzburg) for the critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

    Johanna Fraune, Manfred Alsheimer, Katharina Schücker & Ricardo Benavente

  2. Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, 43 bd du 11 novembre 1918, Villeurbanne, 69622, France

    Céline Brochier-Armanet

  3. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France

    Jean-Nicolas Volff

Authors
  1. Johanna Fraune
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  4. Jean-Nicolas Volff
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  5. Katharina Schücker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ricardo Benavente.

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Funding

R.B. is supported by DFG grant Be1168/8-1. C.B.A. is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (University French Institute).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Animal experiments

All applicable international, national and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Additional information

This article is related to the 21st International Chromosome Conference (Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, July 10–13, 2016).

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Fraune, J., Brochier-Armanet, C., Alsheimer, M. et al. Evolutionary history of the mammalian synaptonemal complex. Chromosoma 125, 355–360 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-016-0583-8

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