The fission yeastSchizosaccharomyces pombehas many biological characteristics that make it an ideal model organism for the study of meiosis. A nearly synchronous meiosis is one of the most important. Under certain environmental and genetic conditions, large cultures ofS. pombecan be induced to undergo meiosis in a timely and predictable manner that allows for changes in the DNA to be observed and analyzed by gel electrophoresis. Initiation of meiotic recombination via programmed DNA double-strand breaks, the formation of joint molecule recombination intermediates, and the resolution of these intermediates into crossover DNA products can all be seen with consistent timing during the progression of a synchronous meiotic induction. The timing of recombination events, the genetic requirements for the formation and disappearance of recombination intermediates, and the analysis of the DNA structures of those intermediates allow a comparison of meiotic recombination in fission yeast with that in the only other species similarly studied, the budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae.
