Chromosome synapsis, recombination and epigenetic modification in rams heterozygous for metacentric chromosome 3 of the domestic sheep Ovis aries and acrocentric homologs of the argali Ovis ammon

Hybridization of domestic animal breeds with their wild relatives is a promising method for increasing the genetic diversity of farm animals. Resource populations derived from the hybridization of various breeds of domestic sheep with mouflon and argali are an important source of breeding material. The karyotypes of argali and domestic sheep differ for a Robertsonian translocation, which occurred in the common ancestor of mouflon and domestic sheep (Ovis aries) due to the centric fusion of chromosomes 5 and 11 of the argali (O. ammon) into chromosome 3 of sheep. It is known that heterozygosity for translocation can lead to synapsis, recombination and chromosome segregation abnormalities in meiosis. Meiosis in the heterozygotes for translocation that distinguishes the karyotypes of sheep and argali has not yet been studied. We examined synapsis, recombination, and epigenetic modification of chromosomes involved in this rearrangement in heterozygous rams using immunolocalization of key proteins of meiosis. In the majority of cells, we observed complete synapsis between the sheep metacentric chromosome and two argali acrocentric chromosomes with the formation of a trivalent. In a small proportion of cells at the early pachytene stage we observed delayed synapsis in pericentromeric regions of the trivalent. Unpaired sites were subjected to epigenetic modification, namely histone H2A.X phosphorylation. However, by the end of the pachytene, these abnormalities had been completely eliminated. Asynapsis was replaced by a nonhomologous synapsis between the centromeric regions of the acrocentric chromosomes. By the end of the pachytene, the γH2A.X signal had been preserved only at the XY bivalent and was absent from the trivalent. The translocation trivalent did not differ from the normal bivalents of metacentric chromosomes for the number and distribution of recombination sites as well as for the degree of centromeric and crossover interference. Thus, we found that heterozygosity for the domestic sheep chromosome 3 and argali chromosomes 5 and 11 does not cause significant alterations in key processes of prophase I meiosis and, therefore, should not lead to a decrease in fertility of the offspring from interspecific sheep hybridization

Negative heterosis for meiotic recombination rate in spermatocytes of the domestic chicken Gallus gallus

Benefits and costs of meiotic recombination are a matter of discussion. Because recombination breaks allele combinations already tested by natural selection and generates new ones of unpredictable fitness, a high recombination rate is generally beneficial for the populations living in a fluctuating or a rapidly changing environment and costly in a stable environment. Besides genetic benefits and costs, there are cytological effects of recombination, both positive and negative. Recombination is necessary for chromosome synapsis and segregation. However, it involves a massive generation of double-strand DNA breaks, erroneous repair of which may lead to germ cell death or various mutations and chromosome rearrangements. Thus, the benefits of recombination (generation of new allele combinations) would prevail over its costs (occurrence of deleterious mutations) as long as the population remains sufficiently heterogeneous. Using immunolocalization of MLH1, a mismatch repair protein, at the synaptonemal complexes, we examined the number and distribution of recombination nodules in spermatocytes of two chicken breeds with high (Pervomai) and low (Russian Crested) recombination rates and their F1 hybrids and backcrosses. We detected negative heterosis for recombination rate in the F1 hybrids. Backcrosses to the Pervomai breed were rather homogenous and showed an intermediate recombination rate. The differences in overall recombination rate between the breeds, hybrids and backcrosses were mainly determined by the differences in the crossing over number in the seven largest macrochromosomes. The decrease in recombination rate in F1 is probably determined by difficulties in homology matching between the DNA sequences of genetically divergent breeds. The suppression of recombination in the hybrids may impede gene flow between parapatric populations and therefore accelerate their genetic divergence