Xuan Zhu

TL;DR: This analysis offers mechanistic insight into DSB formation and early processing steps, supporting the view that the recombination terrain is molded by combinatorial and hierarchical interaction of factors that work on widely different size scales.

TL;DR: These results paint a comprehensive picture of features governing successive steps in mammalian meiotic recombination, including a stereotyped hotspot structure and relationships between SPO11, chromatin, and the histone methyltransferase PRDM9.

TL;DR: It is shown that DSBs form in greater numbers in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells lacking ZMM proteins, and feedback tied to ZMM function contributes in unexpected ways to spatial patterning of recombination.

TL;DR: By combining genome-wide meiotic heteroduplex DNA patterns with meiotic DNA double-strand break sites, it is shown that part of this complexity results from frequent template switching during synthesis-dependent strand annealing that yields noncrossovers and from branch migration of double Holliday junction (dHJ)-containing intermediates that mainly yield crossovers.

TL;DR: R roles of these TFs on DSB hotspot strength cannot be simply explained via chromatin “openness,” histone modification, or compensatory interactions between adjacent hotspots, counter to prevailing models.