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Meiotic recombination is generally suppressed across the centromere of eukaryotic chromosomes. In human, megabase-long satellite sequences and contiguous segmental duplications hamper both physical and fine scale genetic mapping in regions flanking centromeric DNA. We have developed polymorphic microsatellite markers embedded within the duplicated most proximal sequences of the long arm and of the short arm of chromosome 21 by using paralogous specific bases as anchor points for their specific detection. Segregation analysis in CEPH reference pedigrees shows that recombination is repressed significantly across the centromere of chromosome 21 both in male and in female but not in the most proximal 21q region in female. Extreme size variations of the alpha-satellite I blocks transmitted in these families and deduced from quantitative FISH analysis are not correlated with the inter-individual variations of recombination activity observed in the peri-centromeric region. Finally, none of 28 families with a trisomy 21 child previously associated with a nullitransitional meiosis I non-disjunction event presents a recombination exchange across the centromere. This confirms that, for this group of errors, the lack of recombination is the primary susceptibility factor, not abnormal recombination in the centromeric region.

An increasing number of human diseases and syndromes are being found to result from micro-duplications or microdeletions arising from meiotic recombination between homologous repeats on the same chromosome. The first microduplication syndrome delineated, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A), results from unequal crossing over between two98% identical 24 kb repeats (CMT1A-REPs) on chromosome 17. In addition to its medical significance, the CMT1A region has features that make it a unique resource for detailed analysis of human unequal recombination. Previous studies of CMT1A patients showed that the majority of unequal crossovers occurred within a small region (1 kb) of the REPs suggesting the presence of a recombination hot-spot. We directly measured the frequency of unequal recombination in the hot-spot region using sperm from four normal individuals. Surprisingly, unequal recombination between the REPs occurs at a rate no greater than the average rate for the male genome (approximately 1 cM/Mb) and is the same as that expected for equally aligned REPs. This conclusion extends to humans the findings in yeast that recombination between repeated sequences far apart on the same chromosome may occur at similar frequencies to allelic recombination. Finally, the CMT1A hot-spot stands in sharp contrast to the human MS32 mini-satellite-associated hot-spot that exhibits highly enhanced recombination initiation in addition to positional specificity. One possibility is that the CMT1A hot-spot may consist of a region with genome average recombination potential embedded within a recombination cold-spot.

Altered recombination patterns along non-disjoined chromosomes is the first molecular correlate identified for non-disjunction in humans. To understand better the factors related to this correlate, we have asked to what extent is recombination altered in an egg with a disomic chromosome: are patterns limited to the non-disjoined chromosome or do they extend to the entire cell? More specifically, we asked whether there is reduced recombination in the total genome of an egg with a non-disjoined chromosome 21 and no detectable recombination. We chose this subclass of non-disjoined chromosomes to enrich potentially for extremes in recombination. We found a statistically significant cell-wide reduction in the mean recombination rate in these eggs with non-disjoined chromosomes 21; no specific chromosomes were driving this effect. Most importantly, we found that this reduction was consistent with normal variation in recombination observed among eggs. Thus, given that recombination is a multifactorial trait, these data suggest that when the number of genome-wide recombination events is less than some threshold, specific chromosomes may be at an increased risk for non-disjunction. Further studies are required to confirm these results, to determine the importance of genetic and environmental factors that regulate recombination and to determine their impact on non-disjunction.

XX males and XY females have a sex reversal disorder which can be caused by an abnormal interchange between the X and the Y chromosomes. We have isolated and characterized a novel gene on the Y chromosome, PRKY. This gene is highly homologous to a previously isolated gene from Xp22.3, PRKX, and represents a member of the cAMP-dependent serine threonine protein kinase gene family. Abnormal interchange can occur anywhere on Xp/Yp proximal to SRY. We can show that abnormal interchange happens particularly frequently between PRKX and PRKY. In a collection of 26 XX males and four XY females, between 27 and 35% of the interchanges take place between PRK homologues but at different sites within the gene. PRKY and PRKX are located far from the pseudoautosomal region where XY exchange normally takes place. The unprecedented high sequence identity and identical orientation of PRKY to its homologous partner on the X chromosome, PRKX, explains the high frequency of abnormal pairing and subsequent ectopic recombination, leading to XX males and XY females and to the highest rate of recombination outside the pseudoautosomal region.

Meiotic recombination is a specifically timed and regulated process which does not occur randomly throughout the genome, but tends to be clustered in 'hotspots'. There is extensive evidence that recombination rate is influenced by chromatin conformation and that events are primarily initiated at gene promoter regions. In an effort to determine the pattern of chromatin condensation and recombination at meiosis in an imprinted region, fine scale genetic mapping in the approximately 4 Mb Prader-Willi/Angelman syndrome deletion region was undertaken. The results indicate that the male-female recombination ratio can vary significantly over short regions. A male recombination hotspot is localized to between the 3' end of GABRA5 and D15S156, which is adjacent to but outside the putative AS/PWS imprinted regions. In addition, a region of relatively high recombination in females is observed between D15S128 and D15S97, which spans a domain of paternal allele-specific transcription implicated in the Prader-Willi syndrome. It is inferred that the inactivation and relative condensation of this latter region on the maternal chromosome occurs as a post-meiotic modification.

Meiotic recombination does not appear to occur randomly across chromosomes, but rather seems to be restricted to specific regions. A striking example of this phenomenon is illustrated by the HLA class II region. No recombination within the 100 kb encompassing the DRB1-DQA1-DQB1 loci has been reported, whereas the random association of TAP1 with TAP2 alleles suggests the presence of a hotspot for recombination within the 15 kb separating the closest variant sites of these two loci. Recombination rates between loci may provide clues to the functional properties of haplotypes. Absence of recombination may suggest the necessity to keep alleles of certain genes in phase and, alternatively, high recombination rates may suggest selective pressure to diversify haplotypes within the population. To address this issue, recombination rates across the HLA complex were determined using the 59 Centre d'Etude Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH) pedigrees. The allele frequencies of four microsatellite markers which map at sites ranging from the telomeric to centromeric ends of the complex were determined and the markers were used as a rapid means for identification of recombinant chromosomes. Typing these as well as other polymorphic loci within the HLA class I, II and III regions allowed assignment of the segments where recombination occurred. Recombination rates within the class II region (defined here as DRB1 to DPB1) and class III region (defined here as HLA-B to DRB1) regions were 0.74% and 0.94%, respectively, both of which are within an expected range given the standard of 1% recombination rate per megabase of DNA per meiosis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Over 300 cases of trisomy 21 were analyzed to characterize the causes of maternal non-disjunction and to evaluate the basis for maternal age-dependent trisomy 21. We confirmed the observation that recombination along 21q is reduced among non-disjoined chromosomes 21 and further demonstrated that the alterations in recombination are restricted to meiosis I origin. Analysis of the crossover distribution indicates that reduction in recombination is not due simply to failure of pairing and/or absence of recombination in a proportion of cases. Instead, we observed an increase in both zero- and one-exchange events among trisomy 21-generating meioses suggesting that an overall reduction in recombination may be the underlying cause of non-disjunction. Lastly, we observed an age-related reduction in recombination among the meiosis I cases, with older women having less recombination along 21q than younger women. Thus, reduced genetic recombination may be responsible, at least in part, for the association between advancing maternal age and trisomy 21.

Meiotic recombination is of fundamental importance in creating haplotype diversity in the human genome and has the potential to cause genomic rearrangements by ectopic recombination between repeat sequences and through other changes triggered by recombination-initiating events. However, the relationship between allelic recombination and genome instability in the human germline remains unclear. We have therefore analysed recombination and DNA instability in the delta-, beta-globin gene region and its associated recombination hotspot. Sperm typing has for the first time accurately defined the hotspot and shown it to be the most active autosomal crossover hotspot yet described, although unusually inactive in non-exchange gene conversion. The hotspot just extends into a homology block shared by the delta- and beta-globin genes, within which ectopic exchanges can generate Hb Lepore deletions. We developed a physical selection method for recovering and validating extremely rare de novo deletions in human DNA and used it to characterize the dynamics of these Hb Lepore deletions in sperm as well as other deletions not arising from ectopic exchanges between homologous DNA sequences. Surprisingly, both classes of deletion showed breakpoints that avoided the beta-globin hotspot, establishing that it possesses remarkable fidelity and does not play a significant role in triggering these DNA rearrangements. This study also provides the first direct analysis of de novo deletion in the human germline and points to a possible deletion-controlling element in the beta-globin gene separate from the crossover hotspot.