Analysis of Chromatin Structure at Meiotic DSB Sites in Yeasts

One of the major features of meiosis is a high frequency of homologous recombination that not only confers genetic diversity to a successive generation but also ensures proper segregation of chromosomes. Meiotic recombination is initiated by DNA double-strand breaks that require many proteins including the catalytic core, Spo11. In this regard, like transcription and repair, etc., recombination is hindered by a compacted chromatin structure because trans -acting factors cannot easily access the DNA. Such inhibitory effects must be alleviated prior to recombination initiation. Indeed, a number of groups showed that chromatin around recombination hotspots is less condensed, by using nucleases as a probe to assess local DNA accessibility. Here we describe a method to analyze chromatin structure of a recombination hotspot in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe . This method, combining micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion of chromatin DNA and subsequent Southern blotting, is expected to provide information as to chromatin context around a hotspot. Moreover, by virtue of MNase preferentially targeting linker DNA, positions of several nucleosomes surrounding a hotspot can also be determined. Our protocol is a very powerful way to analyze several-kb regions of interest and can be applied to other purposes.