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SUMMARY:Deciphering control of centromeric recombination in Arabidopsis - 
 Joiselle Ferndandes\, Henderson group
DTSTART:20200514T120000Z
DTEND:20200514T123000Z
UID:TALK131734@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:71002
DESCRIPTION:Meiotic crossovers form a physical link between the homologous
  chromosomes\, thereby ensuring proper chromosome segregation and enhancin
 g genetic diversity of the progeny. The frequency of crossovers is highly 
 variable along the chromosomes in most species. Interestingly\, the centro
 meres\, which mediate attachment to microtubules via the kinetochores duri
 ng cell divisions\, are highly suppressed for crossovers in most eukaryote
 s. In crops including wheat\, barley\, rice and tomato recombination is hi
 ghly skewed to distal regions of chromosomes\, while large centromere prox
 imal regions are devoid of crossovers. Unlocking recombination within thes
 e proximal regions might allow better introgression of traits during crop 
 breeding. It is unknown why and how crossovers are suppressed in the centr
 omeres\, although proximal crossovers close to the centromeres may impact 
 chromosome segregation during meiosis and thereby reduce fertility.\n \n\n
 My project aims to understand the mechanisms that underlie recombination s
 uppression in the vicinity of the centromeres in the model plant Arabidops
 is thaliana. I am developing different approaches that utilize fluorescent
  markers (Traffic Lines) flanking centromeres\, allowing for the visual id
 entification of recombination in seeds. Firstly\, after isolating large nu
 mbers of crossover events within the centromeric regions in wild type and 
 mutant contexts (e.g. cmt3\, met1 DNA methylation mutants)\, I will map th
 eir position at fine scale to study links between their distribution\, DNA
  sequence (e.g. gene density\, transposons\, tandem repeats)\, and epigene
 tic marks (e.g. DNA methylation\, H3K9me2). Secondly\, I have performed a 
 forward genetic screen to identify lines that\, after chemical mutagenesis
  (EMS) might display increased/decreased recombination frequency in centro
 meric regions. Thirdly\, I shall exploit natural variation by using differ
 ent Arabidopsis accession in order to identify natural modifiers that affe
 ct centromeric recombination. Together these approaches will allow us to i
 dentify and characterize novel factors that regulate centromeric recombina
 tion. \n
LOCATION:Online
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