SKM 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Poster Session I

BP 11.51: Poster

Dienstag, 28. März 2023, 12:30–15:30, P1

Three-compartment model describes coarsening of biomolecular condensates in Meiosis — •Marcel Ernst and David Zwicker — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

During meiosis, crossovers between the female and male chromosomes mix genetic information. Experimental observations consistently reveal two key findings: First, the number of crossovers per chromosome is at least one and usually small, between one and three. Second, there is crossover interference, which prevents nearby crossovers on a single chromosome. A recently suggested model proposes biomolecular condensates that coarsen by exchanging material along chromosomes to determine crossovers. We extend this model by including the exchange with the surrounding nucleoplasm, leading to a three-compartment model. We validate the model by comparing numerical results with various experimental data in Arabidopsis. In particular, we explain the behavior of a mutant without the axial structure linking the chromosome pairs. Moreover, we derive scaling laws, analogous to Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner theory, predicting the final number of crossovers, and their spatial structure as a function of coarsening time, chromosome length, and the initial amount of material. In summary, our model reveals how meiotic crossovers are regulated in wild-type and in mutants.