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Vol. 18, Issue 12, 4911-4920, December 2007

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Caenorhabditis elegans prom-1 Is Required for Meiotic Prophase Progression and Homologous Chromosome Pairing

Verena Jantsch^*, Lois Tang^*, Pawel Pasierbek, Alexandra Penkner^*, Sudhir Nayak, Antoine Baudrimont^*, Tim Schedl, Anton Gartner, and Josef Loidl^*

*Department of Chromosome Biology and Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, A-1030 Vienna, Austria; Biooptics Department, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, A-1030 Vienna, Austria; Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110; and School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, United Kingdom

Submitted March 22, 2007; Revised September 19, 2007; Accepted September 25, 2007
Monitoring Editor: Yixian Zheng

A novel gene, prom-1, was isolated in a screen for Caenorhabditis elegans mutants with increased apoptosis in the germline. prom-1 encodes an F-box protein with limited homology to the putative human tumor suppressor FBXO47. Mutations in the prom-1 locus cause a strong reduction in bivalent formation, which results in increased embryonic lethality and a Him phenotype. Furthermore, retarded and asynchronous nuclear reorganization as well as reduced homologous synapsis occur during meiotic prophase. Accumulation of recombination protein RAD-51 in meiotic nuclei suggests disturbed repair of double-stranded DNA breaks. Nuclei in prom-1 mutant gonads timely complete mitotic proliferation and premeiotic replication, but they undergo prolonged delay upon meiotic entry. We, therefore, propose that prom-1 regulates the timely progression through meiotic prophase I and that in its absence the recognition of homologous chromosomes is strongly impaired.

The online version of this article contains supplemental material at MBC Online (http://www.molbiolcell.org).

Address correspondence to: Josef Loidl (josef.loidl{at}univie.ac.at).

Abbreviations used: DSB, double-strand break; FISH, fluorescence in situ hybridization; SC, synaptonemal complex; SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism.