Meiosis News and Research

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Multicellular eukaryotes and single-celled sex cells reproduce by a process called meiosis. In this process, the number of chromosomes in a mother cell is halved to produce gametes, cells that fuse with other cells. This happens in plants, animals, and fungi. German biologist, Oscar Hertwig first discovered meiosis in sea urchin eggs in 1876.

Cold Adaptation in Rice Offers New Insights into Evolution

Chinese researchers recently discovered molecular evidence supporting Lamarckism, a long-debated theory from the early 19th century that suggests acquired traits can be inherited.

27 May 2025

Scientists Create First Healthy Mice with Two Fathers

A group of stem cell researchers has successfully engineered embryonic stem cells to create a bi-paternal mouse, a mouse with two male parents, that survived to adulthood.

29 Jan 2025

Unraveling the Role of Cyclin B Docking in Regulating Cell Division

Cell division is essential for the survival of all living organisms, from the simplest yeast to complex human beings.

29 Jan 2025

Echidna Genome Sheds Light on Complex Sex Chromosome Evolution

A nearly gapless genome sequence of the echidna, an egg-laying mammal with multiple sex chromosomes, helps researchers to track genomic reorganization events that gave rise to a highly unusual sex determination system.

9 Jan 2025

Insights into the Formation of Nascent Membrane Structures in Yeast Sporulation

Sexual reproduction, a common mode of reproduction among numerous species, involves gametogenesis in which offspring are produced through fertilization, conjugation, or mating. In plants and animals, eggs and sperm differentiate from germ cells to form gametes.

30 Sep 2024

SYCE2 Gene Variant Disrupts Alignment of Chromosomes, Potentially Leading to Pregnancy Loss

Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen and their collaborators from Iceland, Denmark and USA published a study today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology titled "Variant in the synaptonemal complex protein SYCE2 associates with pregnancy loss through effects on recombination".

30 Jan 2024

Zipping Up Chromosomes: The Synaptonemal Complex Revealed

We have two copies of each chromosome in every cell in our bodies except in our reproductive cells. Sperm and egg cells contain a single copy of each chromosome with a unique mix of genes from our parents, an evolutionary trick to give our offspring genetic variability.

4 Jan 2024

New Discovery Leads to Underlying Factors to Gene Size Variations

The present understanding of genomic stability and variability is mostly based on a few model species, leaving the scope and generality of these discoveries uncertain.

9 Aug 2023

Malaria Parasite’s Meiosis Could Hold the Key to New Treatments

Researchers from the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham have been awarded nearly £600,000 to investigate how sexual development and gene shuffling inside the malaria parasite can help regulate malaria transmission.

7 Aug 2023

Understanding How Supernumerary Chromosomes Arise

The majority of chromosomes have existed for millions of years.

5 May 2023

TurboID-based proximity labeling in meiotic cells of Arabidopsis thaliana

During meiosis, reshuffling of genetic information between homologous chromosomes through meiotic recombination creates variable gametes and hence genetic variation in offsprings.

14 Mar 2023

New insights into the distribution and regulation of meiotic DSB hotspots

A new method, DNA End tailing and sequencing (DEtail-seq), for meiotic DNA double-strand break (DSB) profiling was developed recently.

3 Mar 2023

Scientists accelerate the development of pure genetic lines by inducing mutation

Iowa State University researchers may have solved a long-standing challenge associated with accelerated development of pure genetic lines.

20 Feb 2023

Meiotic drive systems can be maintained for long evolutionary timespans

Meiotic drivers, which are a sort of selfish gene, are, in fact, selfish. They are found in nearly all species’ genomes, including humans, and unfairly convey their genetic information to more than half of their offspring, resulting in infertility and impaired organism health.

21 Oct 2022