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HEREDITAS ›› 2011, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (7): 725-730.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1005.2011.00725

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Correlation analysis between meiotic recombination frequencies and age in human spermatocyte

DUAN Tao1, YANG Qing-Ling2, WANG Liu2, SHI Qing-Hua2, YU De-Xin1   

  1. 1. Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China 2. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, School of Life Science, University of Science Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China
  • Received:2011-03-16 Revised:2011-04-09 Online:2011-07-20 Published:2011-07-25

Abstract: Faithful meiotic recombination is essential for the segregation of homologous chromosomes and the formation of normal haploid gametes. Little is known about the mechanism of meiotic recombination in human germ cells. MLH1 (a DNA mismatch repair protein) foci on synaptonemal complexes (SCs) at prophase I of meiosis can be used to examine re-combination frequency. In 10 fertile men, the mean number of MLH1 foci per cell in all donors was 49.4 with a range from 33 to 63. There was significant variation in the recombination frequency found among 10 normal individuals: the mean frequencies of chromosomal recombination foci ranged from 47 to 52.7. The bivalents without recombination focus were rare, with a frequency of only 0.4%. Thus, achiasmate chromosomes appeared to be rare in human male meiosis. Spearman correlation analysis between age and the frequencies of recombination foci failed to get any significantly statistical correla-tion, suggesting that aging contributes nothing to the variation among individuals.

Key words: meiosis, synaptonemal complex, genetic recombination, spermatocyte, age