TOPping off meiosis.

Double-strand breaks (DSBs) threaten chromosome integrity. The most accurate repair of DSBs is by homologous recombination (HR), catalyzed by recombination proteins such as Rad51. Three papers in this issue of Molecular Cell (Fasching et al., 2015; Kaur et al., 2015; Tang et al., 2015) now reveal the role of three of these proteins in budding yeast: Sgs1 (BLM homolog), Top3 (TOPIIIα homolog), and Rmi1. They demonstrate several steps where all three proteins act together, and find additional functions of the Top3-Rmi1 subcomplex that are critical for the completion of meiosis.