The joy of six: how to control your crossovers.

Globus, Samuel T; Keeney, Scott · Cell · 2012

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Meiotic cells tightly regulate the number and distribution of crossovers to promote accurate chromosome segregation. Yokoo and colleagues uncover a metazoan-specific, cyclin-like protein that is crucial for crossover formation. They utilize this protein's unique properties to explore a remarkable example of biological numerology, whereby nearly every meiotic cell in C. elegans makes precisely six crossovers, one for each of its six chromosome pairs.