UC Santa Cruz

Meiotic chromosome segregation depends on crossover recombination to link homologous chromosomes together and promote accurate segregation in the first meiotic division. In Caenorhabditis elegans, a conserved RING finger protein, ZHP-3, is essential for meiotic recombination and localizes to sites of crossover formation. Whether ZHP-3 is regulated to promote recombination remains poorly understood. In vitro analysis identified two putative CHK-1 kinase phosphorylation sites on ZHP-3. However, mutation of the phosphorylation sites identified in vitro had no effect on meiotic recombination or localization of ZHP-3. Thus, these two phosphorylation sites appear to be dispensable for ZHP-3s role in meiotic recombination or its localization.