Mechanical basis of meiotic metaphase arrest

The Drosophila melanogaster mei-9 and mei-218 genes are required in the late and early stages of the recombination pathway. Mutations in these genes result in the failure of chiasma formation. Microscopic analysis showed that these mutants also did not undergo normal metaphase arrest during meiosis.Since the two genes control different aspects of recombination, the results show that the failure of chiasma formation is the undelying cause of the lack of metaphase arrest. The results demonstrate that chromosomes are able to control the cell cycle.