Meiosis-specific gene functions and cell cycle control in Drosophila spermatocytes

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Fungi, plants and animals exploit in essence an identical procedure for genome haploidization during meiosis. Homologous chromosomes are paired after duplicaton during the premeiotic S phase. In general the pairs are kept together by chiasmata which result from meiotic recombination. These chromosome pairs are separated during the first meiotic division and distributed onto the two opposite spindle poles. During the subsequent second meiotic division, each of the two resulting chromosome groups is integrated into another spindle apparatus which segregates the two chromatids of every chromosome onto opposite spindle poles, resulting in four haploid nuclei. However, at the molecular level even fundamental aspects of meiosis appear to have been poorly conserved and are therefore inadequately understood. Meiosis in male Drosophila melanogaster flies surprisingly does not include meiotic recombination and the meiotic divisions can be followed readily by in vivo imaging. In combination with the powerful genetic methodology available in Drosophila we will exploit these special properties of male meiosis in our project. We will analyse the mechanism of transcriptional control and the function of genes which are expressed in both sexes exclusively during meiosis. Special attention will be given to the molecular regulation triggering the onset of the meiotic divisions.