How yeast chromosomes avoid the bad breaks

The human genome is peppered with repeated DNA elements that can vary from a few to thousands of consecutive copies of the same sequence. During meiosis—the cell division that produces sperm and eggs—repetitive elements place the genome at risk for dangerous rearrangements from genome reshuffling. This recombination typically does not occur in repetitive DNA, in part because much of it is assembled into specialized heterochromatin. Other mechanisms that restrain recombination in repetitive DNA have remained elusive, until now.

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