Understanding Meiosis and Recombination in Cultivated Barley

A greater understanding of the control of recombination in crop plants would be particularly useful for crop species such as barley (and wheat) where there is a highly skewed distribution of meiotic crossover events relative to gene content.  In these large genome grass species, substantial proportions of the chromosomes are inherited together as large linkage blocks, preventing the generation of novel gene combinations and useful variation that could be exploited in breeding programmes. In order to improve our understanding of recombination in barley, to ultimately enable its modulation for breeding purposes, we are characterizing a collection of 14 non-allelic desynaptic (des) mutants that exhibit perturbed meiosis and semi-sterility compared to wild type. 3D-SIM microscopy analysis reveals that each mutant is differently affected for synapsis, crossing over formation and meiosis progression. The importance of the interplay between synapsis and recombination will be discussed as well as the possibilities of modulating crossing over by environmental treatment.