Initiation of meiotic recombination is independent of interhomologue interactions.

In yeast meiosis, crossing-over between homologues is dependent upon double-strand breaks. We demonstrate that the occurrence of these breaks is independent of pairing between homologues by showing that they occur with normal frequency, timing, and position in the absence of a homologue. This observation supports models that view double-strand breaks as initiating events and crossing-over as a consequence of repair of these breaks.