A role for noncoding RNA in recognition of homologous chromosomes

减数分裂是生物有性生殖的一个重要过程。在减数分裂过程中，同源染色体彼此配对并进行同源重组，这对染色体的正确分离至关重要。在裂殖酵母裂殖酵母中，端粒的聚集促进同源染色体配对。然而，染色体识别其同源伴侣的机制仍不清楚。我们证明sme2基因编码一个减数分裂特异性非编码RNA，介导S.粟球。sme 2 RNA转录物在其各自的基因座上积累，并极大地增强了同源基因座的配对：sme 2序列的缺失消除了这种稳健的配对，而转座到其他染色体位点则赋予这些位点稳健的配对。结果表明，保留在染色体上的RNA转录本在S.粟酒

Meiosis is an essential process for sexually-reproducing organisms. During meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair with each other and undergo homologous recombination, which is crucial for proper segregation of chromosomes. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, clustering of telomeres promotes homologous chromosome pairing. However, the mechanisms by which chromosomes recognize their homologous partners remain unclear. We demonstrate that the sme2 gene encodes a meiosis-specific noncoding RNA that mediates homologous recognition in S. pombe. The sme2 RNA transcripts accumulate at their respective gene loci, and greatly enhances pairing of homologous loci: deletion of the sme2 sequence eliminates this robust pairing while transposition to other chromosomal sites confers the robust pairing at those sites. Results indicate that RNA transcripts retained on the chromosome play a role in recognition of homologous chromosomes in S. pombe.