PRDM9 losses in vertebrates are coupled to those of paralogs ZCWPW1 and ZCWPW2
Published in bioRxiv (in print PNAS), 2022
Recommended citation: Cavassim, et al. (2021). "PRDM9 losses in vertebrates are coupled to those of paralogs ZCWPW1 and ZCWPW2." bioRxiv. 1(3). http://izabelcavassim.github.io/files/prdm9_pnas.pdf
In mammals and likely throughout vertebrates, the gene PRDM9 specifies the location of meiotic double strand breaks (DSBs) which are catalyzed by SPO11; in mice and humans at least, PRDM9 also aids in their repair. PRDM9 arose before the origin of vertebrates but was lost many times, either partially or entirely, and with it, it also lost its role in recombination. In this study, we leverage the PRDM9 interdigitation along the vertebrate phylogeny to identify genes whose presence coincides with that of PRDM9 and thus may be interacting with it.
Recommended citation: Cavassim, et al. (2021). “PRDM9 losses in vertebrates are coupled to those of paralogs ZCWPW1 and ZCWPW2.” PNAS. 1(3).