Meiosis-Specific Noncoding RNA Mediates Robust Pairing of Homologous Chromosomes in Meiosis

Abstract

Find Your Partner Gametes generally have haploid genomes, so that when they fuse during fertilization, they reconstitute a diploid organism. Meiosis is required to make haploid gametes, which involves a reduction division where two homologous chromosomes first pair and are then segregated away from each other. Working in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe , Ding et al. (p. 732 ; see the Perspective by Dernburg ) explored how homologous chromosomes recognized each other and found that a non-coding RNA locus, sme2 , helps to drive the pairing of homologous chromosomes.