High throughput sequencing reveals alterations in the recombination signatures with diminishing Spo11 activity. Saccharomyces cerevisiae S96 x YJM789

To better understand the effects of spo11 mutations on meiotic gene conversion and crossing over, we monitored meiotic recombination on a genome-wide scale by sequencing the genomes of spores from tetrads containing four viable spores. For this analysis, we used a diploid derived by mating a typical laboratory strain (S96) to a clinical isolate (YJM789). The parental strains differ from each other at ~55,000 locations (single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) allowing most interhomolog recombination events to be detected. Spores from five tetrads derived from spo11 hypomorphs (three from spo11-217 and two from spo11-32, sporulated at 24 or 31.5 oC) were subjected to high-throughput, multiplexed sequencing.