Repeated losses of PRDM9-directed recombination despite the conservation of PRDM9 across vertebrates

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.24133
• Publication Date: 2017-06-06T12:00:13Z
• Authors: Zachary Baker; Molly Schumer; Yuki Haba; Lisa Bashkirova; Chris Holland; Gil G Rosenthal; Molly Przeworski
• Keywords: Conserved sequence

Studies of highly diverged species have revealed two mechanisms by which meiotic recombination is directed to the genome—through PRDM9 binding or targeting promoter-like features—that lead dramatically different evolutionary dynamics hotspots. Here, we identify orthologs from genome and transcriptome data in 225 species. We find complete ortholog across distantly related vertebrates but, despite this broad conservation, infer a minimum six partial three losses. Strikingly, taxa carrying are precisely those with rapid evolution its predicted affinity, suggesting that all domains necessary for directing recombination. Indeed, as show, swordtail fish only but conserved share properties knock-outs.