The chromatin-associated 53BP1 ortholog, HSR-9, regulates recombinational repair and chromosome segregation in the germ line.

53BP1 plays a crucial role in regulating DNA damage repair pathway choice and checkpoint signaling in somatic cells; however, its role in meiosis has remained enigmatic. In this study, we demonstrate that the ortholog of 53BP1, HSR-9, associates with chromatin in both proliferating and meiotic germ cells. Notably, HSR-9 is enriched on the chromosome pair in pachytene oogenic germ cells. HSR-9 is also present at kinetochores during both mitotic and meiotic divisions but does not appear to be essential for monitoring microtubule-kinetochore attachments or tension. Using cytological markers of different steps in recombinational repair, we found that HSR-9 influences the processing of a subset of meiotic double strand breaks into COSA-1-marked crossovers. Additionally, HSR-9 plays a role in meiotic chromosome segregation under conditions where chromosomes fail to pair, synapse, and recombine. Together, these results highlight that chromatin-associated HSR-9 has both conserved and unique functions in the regulation of meiotic chromosome behavior.