During meiosis, numerous exchanges between maternal and paternal chromosomes occur. These recombination events proceed by a mechanism of DNA breakage and repair during the prophase of the first division of meiosis.
These breaks are produced by enzymes related to topoisomerases.
In two studies published in Molecular Biology and Evolution and Nature communications, scientists have contributed to understand how this activity has specialized during evolution to become involved in sexual reproduction by analyzing the evolutionary origin of these proteins.
