Mismatch repair, gene conversion, and crossing-over in two recombination-defective mutants of Drosophila melanogaster.

Recombination-defective mutants at two loci that are known to decrease drastically the frequency of meiotic crossing-over do not decrease the frequency of gene conversion at the rosy locus. mei-9 mutant alleles produce frequent postmeiotic segregants manifested as mosaic progeny whereas controls and mei-218 mutants produce none. It is concluded that (i) recombination in Drosophila involves a biparental DNA intermediate and (ii) correction of heteroduplex DNA or recognition of biparental DNA or both is necessary, but not sufficient, for this intermediate to result in crossing-over of flanking markers. It is therefore likely, at least in Drosophila, that the isomerization step in Meselson-Radding type molecular models of recombination is under genetic control.