Molecular architecture, dynamics and evolution of the synaptonemal complex

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Synaptonemal complexes are meiosis-specific structures that mediate synapsis of homologous chro-mosomes and play a key role in recombination and chromosome segregation. The inability to assem-ble SCs has dramatic consequences for gametogenesis that can lead to infertility. The structure and functions of the SC are evolutionarily highly conserved. Remarkably, according to the literature this is not the case for the SC protein components: The comparison of SC proteins in meiosis model organ-isms as yeast, Arabidopsis, Caenorhabditis, Drosophila and mouse reveals clear differences in the primary sequences of functionally related proteins. However, here we provide preliminary evidence that major structural proteins of the SC (i.e. SYCP1 and SYCP3) would form monophyletic groups of proteins across metazoan evolution. In order to investigate this important point in detail, we propose a comparative analysis of SC structure, composition and dynamics between mammals and basal metazoans (i.e. hydra). A direct comparison of the results in hydra and mammals would provide deep insight into the essential features of meiosis over the last 600 million years of metazoan evolution.