Vallente Rhea U, Cheng Edith Y, Hassold Terry J
School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
Chromosoma. 2006 Jun;115(3):241-9. doi: 10.1007/s00412-006-0058-4. Epub 2006 Mar 18.
Meiotic prophase serves as an arena for the interplay of two important cellular activities, meiotic recombination and synapsis of homologous chromosomes. Synapsis is mediated by the synaptonemal complex (SC), originally characterized as a structure linked to pairing of meiotic chromosomes (Moses (1958) J Biophys Biochem Cytol 4:633-638). In 1975, the first electron micrographs of human pachytene stage SCs were presented (Moses et al. (1975) Science 187:363-365) and over the next 15 years the importance of the SC to normal meiotic progression in human males and females was established (Jhanwar and Chaganti (1980) Hum Genet 54:405-408; Pathak and Elder (1980) Hum Genet 54:171-175; Solari (1980) Chromosoma 81:315-337; Speed (1984) Hum Genet 66:176-180; Wallace and Hulten (1985) Ann Hum Genet 49(Pt 3):215-226). Further, these studies made it clear that abnormalities in the assembly or maintenance of the SC were an important contributor to human infertility (Chaganti et al. (1980) Am J Hum Genet 32:833-848; Vidal et al. (1982) Hum Genet 60:301-304; Bojko (1983) Carlsberg Res Commun 48:285-305; Bojko (1985) Carlsberg Res Commun 50:43-72; Templado et al. (1984) Hum Genet 67:162-165; Navarro et al. (1986) Hum Reprod 1:523-527; Garcia et al. (1989) Hum Genet 2:147-53). However, the utility of these early studies was limited by lack of information on the structural composition of the SC and the identity of other SC-associated proteins. Fortunately, studies of the past 15 years have gone a long way toward remedying this problem. In this minireview, we highlight the most important of these advances as they pertain to human meiosis, focusing on temporal aspects of SC assembly, the relationship between the SC and meiotic recombination, and the contribution of SC abnormalities to human infertility.
减数分裂前期是两种重要细胞活动——减数分裂重组和同源染色体联会相互作用的场所。联会由联会复合体（SC）介导，最初被描述为一种与减数分裂染色体配对相关的结构（摩西（1958年）《生物物理与生物化学细胞学杂志》4:633 - 638）。1975年，首次展示了人类粗线期SC的电子显微镜照片（摩西等人（1975年）《科学》187:363 - 365），在接下来的15年里，SC对人类男性和女性正常减数分裂进程的重要性得以确立（贾恩瓦尔和查甘蒂（1980年）《人类遗传学》54:405 - 408；帕塔克和埃尔德（1980年）《人类遗传学》54:171 - 175；索拉里（1980年）《染色体》81:315 - 337；斯皮德（1984年）《人类遗传学》66:176 - 180；华莱士和胡尔滕（1985年）《人类遗传学杂志》49(第3部分):215 - 226）。此外，这些研究清楚地表明，SC组装或维持异常是导致人类不孕的重要因素（查甘蒂等人（1980年）《美国人类遗传学杂志》32:833 - 848；维达尔等人（1982年）《人类遗传学》60:301 - 304；博伊科（1983年）《嘉士伯研究通讯》48:285 - 305；博伊科（1985年）《嘉士伯研究通讯》50:43 - 72；坦普拉多等人（1984年）《人类遗传学》67:162 - 165；纳瓦罗等人（1986年）《人类生殖》1:523 - 527；加西亚等人（1989年）《人类遗传学》2:147 - 53）。然而，这些早期研究的效用受到SC结构组成信息以及其他与SC相关蛋白质身份信息缺乏的限制。幸运的是，过去15年的研究在很大程度上弥补了这一问题。在这篇迷你综述中，我们着重介绍这些与人类减数分裂相关的最重要进展，重点关注SC组装的时间方面、SC与减数分裂重组之间的关系以及SC异常对人类不孕的影响。
