The RAD51 paralogue HvXRCC2 affects meiosis and recombination in barley

Isabelle Colas; Malcolm Macaulay; Mikel Arrieta; Miriam Schreiber; Jamie Orr; Amritpal Sandhu; Anu Augustine; Małgorzata Targońska-Karasek; Susan J Armstrong; Robbie Waugh; Luke Ramsay

doi:10.1093/jxb/eraf489

The RAD51 paralogue HvXRCC2 affects meiosis and recombination in barley

Isabelle Colas
, Malcolm Macaulay
, Mikel Arrieta
, Miriam Schreiber
, Jamie Orr
, Amritpal Sandhu
, Anu Augustine
, Małgorzata Targońska-Karasek
, Susan J Armstrong
, Robbie Waugh
, Luke Ramsay (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

5 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Using a positional candidate-gene approach, we show that semi-sterile desynaptic8 mutants are associated with deleterious variants of the barley homolog of XRCC2 (X-Ray Repair Cross Complementing 2). In barley XRCC2 mutants, the initial meiotic progression is normal, albeit with a small delay in initiation, with completion of synapsis. However, the absence of HvXRCC2 subsequently leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of crossovers, chromosome mis-segregation, and infertility, suggesting that HvXRCC2 plays a major role in recombination. This mutant phenotype is congruent with that reported in mammalian studies but contrasts with the XRCC2 mutant in Arabidopsis which is fertile, exhibits normal chromosome pairing and correct chromosome segregation, and is associated with an increased rate of crossovers. This observation indicates that the XRCC2 mutant phenotype in Arabidopsis is not representative of all plants and that XRCC2 is not a good candidate for the modulation of recombination in barley.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3593-3606
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Experimental Botany
Volume	77
Issue number	12
Early online date	18 Dec 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf489
Publication status	Published - 24 Jun 2026

Keywords

Hordeum/genetics
Meiosis/genetics
Recombination, Genetic
Plant Proteins/genetics
Mutation
Rad51 Recombinase/genetics
Crossing Over, Genetic

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10.1093/jxb/eraf489Licence: CC BY

Final published version
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 2.12 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "The RAD51 paralogue HvXRCC2 affects meiosis and recombination in barley",

abstract = "Using a positional candidate-gene approach, we show that semi-sterile desynaptic8 mutants are associated with deleterious variants of the barley homolog of XRCC2 (X-Ray Repair Cross Complementing 2). In barley XRCC2 mutants, the initial meiotic progression is normal, albeit with a small delay in initiation, with completion of synapsis. However, the absence of HvXRCC2 subsequently leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of crossovers, chromosome mis-segregation, and infertility, suggesting that HvXRCC2 plays a major role in recombination. This mutant phenotype is congruent with that reported in mammalian studies but contrasts with the XRCC2 mutant in Arabidopsis which is fertile, exhibits normal chromosome pairing and correct chromosome segregation, and is associated with an increased rate of crossovers. This observation indicates that the XRCC2 mutant phenotype in Arabidopsis is not representative of all plants and that XRCC2 is not a good candidate for the modulation of recombination in barley.",

keywords = "Hordeum/genetics, Meiosis/genetics, Recombination, Genetic, Plant Proteins/genetics, Mutation, Rad51 Recombinase/genetics, Crossing Over, Genetic",

author = "Isabelle Colas and Malcolm Macaulay and Mikel Arrieta and Miriam Schreiber and Jamie Orr and Amritpal Sandhu and Anu Augustine and Ma{\l}gorzata Targo{\'n}ska-Karasek and Armstrong, \{Susan J\} and Robbie Waugh and Luke Ramsay",

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doi = "10.1093/jxb/eraf489",

language = "English",

volume = "77",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - The RAD51 paralogue HvXRCC2 affects meiosis and recombination in barley

AU - Colas, Isabelle

AU - Macaulay, Malcolm

AU - Arrieta, Mikel

AU - Schreiber, Miriam

AU - Orr, Jamie

AU - Sandhu, Amritpal

AU - Augustine, Anu

AU - Targońska-Karasek, Małgorzata

AU - Armstrong, Susan J

AU - Waugh, Robbie

AU - Ramsay, Luke

N1 - © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

PY - 2026/6/24

Y1 - 2026/6/24

N2 - Using a positional candidate-gene approach, we show that semi-sterile desynaptic8 mutants are associated with deleterious variants of the barley homolog of XRCC2 (X-Ray Repair Cross Complementing 2). In barley XRCC2 mutants, the initial meiotic progression is normal, albeit with a small delay in initiation, with completion of synapsis. However, the absence of HvXRCC2 subsequently leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of crossovers, chromosome mis-segregation, and infertility, suggesting that HvXRCC2 plays a major role in recombination. This mutant phenotype is congruent with that reported in mammalian studies but contrasts with the XRCC2 mutant in Arabidopsis which is fertile, exhibits normal chromosome pairing and correct chromosome segregation, and is associated with an increased rate of crossovers. This observation indicates that the XRCC2 mutant phenotype in Arabidopsis is not representative of all plants and that XRCC2 is not a good candidate for the modulation of recombination in barley.

AB - Using a positional candidate-gene approach, we show that semi-sterile desynaptic8 mutants are associated with deleterious variants of the barley homolog of XRCC2 (X-Ray Repair Cross Complementing 2). In barley XRCC2 mutants, the initial meiotic progression is normal, albeit with a small delay in initiation, with completion of synapsis. However, the absence of HvXRCC2 subsequently leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of crossovers, chromosome mis-segregation, and infertility, suggesting that HvXRCC2 plays a major role in recombination. This mutant phenotype is congruent with that reported in mammalian studies but contrasts with the XRCC2 mutant in Arabidopsis which is fertile, exhibits normal chromosome pairing and correct chromosome segregation, and is associated with an increased rate of crossovers. This observation indicates that the XRCC2 mutant phenotype in Arabidopsis is not representative of all plants and that XRCC2 is not a good candidate for the modulation of recombination in barley.

KW - Hordeum/genetics

KW - Meiosis/genetics

KW - Recombination, Genetic

KW - Plant Proteins/genetics

KW - Mutation

KW - Rad51 Recombinase/genetics

KW - Crossing Over, Genetic

U2 - 10.1093/jxb/eraf489

DO - 10.1093/jxb/eraf489

M3 - Article

C2 - 41413892

SN - 0022-0957

VL - 77

SP - 3593

EP - 3606

JO - Journal of Experimental Botany

JF - Journal of Experimental Botany

IS - 12

ER -

The RAD51 paralogue HvXRCC2 affects meiosis and recombination in barley

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