Genetic recombination in meiosis plays an important role in generating diversity of genetic information. In yeast an Escherichia coli RecA-like gene, DMC1, is expressed in meiotic prophase and its product co-localizes with Rad51 protein on zygotene chromosomes. We have cloned the mouse and human homologs of the yeast DMC1 gene. The predicted human and mouse DMC1 proteins showed 54.1% sequence i...

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Dmc1 and Tid1 proteins are required for the pairing of homologous chromosomes during meiotic recombination. This pairing is the precursor to the formation of crossovers between homologs, an event that is necessary for the accurate segregation of chromosomes. Failure to form crossovers can have serious consequences and may lead to chromosomal imbalance. Dmc1, a meios...

In somatic cells, BRCA2 is needed for RAD51-mediated homologous recombination. The meiosis-specific DNA strand exchange protein, DMC1, promotes the formation of DNA strand invasion products (joint molecules) between homologous molecules in a fashion similar to RAD51. BRCA2 interacts directly with both human RAD51 and DMC1; in the case of RAD51, this interaction results in stimulation of RAD51-p...

Dmc1 and Rad51 are eukaryotic RecA homologues that are involved in meiotic recombination. The expression of Dmc1 is limited to meiosis, whereas Rad51 is expressed in mitosis and meiosis. Dmc1 and Rad51 have unique and overlapping functions during meiotic recombination. Here we report the purification of the Dmc1 protein from the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and present basic character...

Meiotic recombination requires the meiosis-specific RecA homolog Dmc1 as well as the mitotic RecA homolog Rad51. Here, we show that the two meiosis-specific proteins Mei5 and Sae3 are necessary for the assembly of Dmc1, but not for Rad51, on chromosomes including the association of Dmc1 with a recombination hot spot. Mei5, Sae3, and Dmc1 form a ternary and evolutionary conserved complex that re...

The M200V polymorphism of the human DMC1 protein, which is an essential, meiosis-specific DNA recombinase, was found in an infertile patient, raising the question of whether this homozygous human DMC1-M200V polymorphism may cause infertility by affecting the function of the human DMC1 protein. In the present study, we determined the crystal structure of the human DMC1-M200V variant in the octam...

Two RecA homologs, Rad51 and Dmc1, assemble as cytologically visible complexes (foci) at the same sites on meiotic chromosomes. Time course analysis confirms that co-foci appear and disappear as the single predominant form. A large fraction of co-foci are eliminated in a red1 mutant, which is expected as a characteristic of the interhomolog-specific recombination pathway. Previous studies sugge...

Two RecA homologs, Rad51 and Dmc1, assemble as cytologically visible complexes (foci) at the same sites on meiotic chromosomes. Time course analysis confirms that co-foci appear and disappear as the single predominant form. A large fraction of co-foci are eliminated in a red1 mutant, which is expected as a characteristic of the interhomolog-specific recombination pathway. Previous studies sugge...

We report here a Schizosaccharomyces pombe gene (dmc1(+)) that resembles budding yeast DMC1 in the region immediately upstream of the rad24(+) gene. We showed by northern and Southern blot analysis that dmc1(+) and rad24(+) are co-transcribed as a bicistronic mRNA of 2.8 kb with meiotic specificity, whereas rad24(+) itself is constitutively transcribed as a 1.0-kb mRNA species during meiosis. I...