TY - JOUR AU - Gillies, C B AB - C. B. Gillies School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia In the two decades since Fawcett and Moses independently described the occur­ rence of tripartite structures in electron micrographs of meiotic prophase biva­ lents, the synaptonemal complex has been found to be almost universally present at the pachytene stage of eukaryote meiosis (I, 2). More recent work has concen­ trated on attempts to define the role of the synaptonemal complex (SC) and its relationships to chromosome structure and function. The present review collates such research of the last three to five years. Reviewed in particular are the relationships of the SC to genetic recombination, to chromosomal structures such as teiomeres, centromeres, chromomeres, and nucleolus organizers, and to chromosome and gene chemical composition. For other reviews dealing with these subjects, readers are referred to Peacock (3), Comings & Okada (4), Moens (5), and Stubblefield (6). Since the compilation of Westergaard & von Wettstein (2), SCs have been reported in red, brown, and green algae (7, 8, 9), and in four more genera of Ascomycetes (10). Improved fixation has allowed the demonstration of normal SCs at zygotene and pachytene in yeast (II). In the higher plants TI - Synaptonemal Complex and Chromosome Structure JF - Annual Review of Genetics DO - 10.1146/annurev.ge.09.120175.000515 DA - 1975-12-01 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/annual-reviews/synaptonemal-complex-and-chromosome-structure-BA0ouXlzv0 SP - 91 EP - 109 VL - 9 IS - 1 DP - DeepDyve ER -