recombination-suppression
Recombination-suppression refers to biological mechanisms that restrict or prevent genetic recombination in specific chromosomal regions, limiting the shuffling of parental genetic material during reproduction. This is significant for plant science because it allows favorable combinations of genes to be preserved across generations, which is crucial for breeding programs and maintaining adaptive traits. Understanding these mechanisms also provides insights into plant evolution and how genetic diversity is regulated.
PubMed · 2026-02-14
Recombination suppression is a genetic mechanism that prevents genes from shuffling in certain DNA regions, allowing plants to evolve into separate species while still interbreeding. This review explains how this mechanism drives plant adaptation and speciation by linking beneficial genes together and limiting genetic exchange between populations.
Recombination suppression facilitates genomic divergence and speciation under ongoing gene flow, enabling plant populations to diverge despite continued interbreeding
Multiple genomic contexts generate recombination suppression: structural variants, transposable elements, epigenetic modifications, and centromeric regions
New long-read sequencing technologies and haplotype-resolved assemblies now enable fine-scale mapping of recombination landscapes across plant systems