The Genetics of Genetics: Genes Controlling Recombination in Maize

染色体间同源重组是遗传变异的基本来源，也是几乎所有遗传学和育种学的基础。减数分裂重组还允许构建遗传图谱，这对于从标记辅助选择到有价值基因的图位克隆的应用范围是重要的。值得注意的是，尽管同源重组对遗传学至关重要，但人们对高等植物中的同源重组过程知之甚少，更不知道它是如何控制的。这是对玉米减数分裂重组过程的全面研究，玉米是美国最大的农作物，也是这些研究的唯一合适的模型系统。 这项研究的范围很广，从发现参与该过程的新基因到交叉机制和进行重组事件的蛋白质复合物的电子显微镜。这项研究将直接增强对植物基因组如何产生和维持多样性，植物基因组如何组织以及植物基因组组织如何影响重组结果的理解。我们的目标也是开发一个资源，社区可以根据未来的研究重组在所有植物。

Homologous recombination between chromosomes is a fundamental source of genetic variation and the basis of nearly all genetics and breeding. Meiotic recombination also permits construction of genetic maps, important for applications ranging from marker-assisted selection to map-based cloning of valuable genes. Remarkably, despite its central importance to genetics, little is known about the process of homologous recombination in higher plants, and even less about how it is controlled. This is a comprehensive study of the meiotic recombination process in maize, the largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and a uniquely suited model system for these studies. The study is broad in scope, from discovering new genes involved in the process to mechanisms of crossing over and electron microscopy of protein complexes carrying out recombination events. This research will directly enhance understanding of how plant genomes generate and maintain diversity, how plant genomes are organized and how plant genome organization can influence recombination outcomes. The goal is also to develop a resource on which the community can base future studies of recombination in all plants.