Superresolution expansion microscopy reveals the three-dimensional organization of the Drosophila synaptonemal complex

The synaptonemal complex (SC), a structure highly conserved from yeast to mammals, assembles between homologous chromosomes and is essential for accurate chromosome segregation at the first meiotic division. In Drosophila melanogaster, many SC components and their general positions within the comple...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2017-08, Vol.114 (33), p.E6857-E6866
Main Authors: Cahoon, Cori K., Yu, Zulin, Wang, Yongfu, Guo, Fengli, Unruh, Jay R., Slaughter, Brian D., Hawley, R. Scott
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D technology
Biological Sciences
Cell division
Chromatids
Chromatin
Chromosomes
Drosophila
Electron microscopy
Homology
Meiosis
PNAS Plus
Proteins
Synaptonemal complex
Three dimensional models
Yeast
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Summary:The synaptonemal complex (SC), a structure highly conserved from yeast to mammals, assembles between homologous chromosomes and is essential for accurate chromosome segregation at the first meiotic division. In Drosophila melanogaster, many SC components and their general positions within the complex have been dissected through a combination of genetic analyses, superresolution microscopy, and electron microscopy. Although these studies provide a 2D understanding of SC structure in Drosophila, the inability to optically resolve the minute distances between proteins in the complex has precluded its 3D characterization. A recently described technology termed expansion microscopy (ExM) uniformly increases the size of a biological sample, thereby circumventing the limits of optical resolution. By adapting the ExM protocol to render it compatible with structured illumination microscopy, we can examine the 3D organization of several known Drosophila SC components. These data provide evidence that two layers of SC are assembled. We further speculate that each SC layer may connect two nonsister chromatids, and present a 3D model of the Drosophila SC based on these findings.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1705623114