Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2009
It is argued that the primary break-points for meiotic recombination arise from the replication of regions in which DNA synthesis is delayed until meiotic prophase. The gaps would be in nucleotide chains of opposite polarity in sister chromatids. This would place a restriction on the recombination models of Holliday and of Whitehouse, so that neither is able to explain observed chromatid interference. It follows that if the primary breaks originate in the manner proposed here, the Whitehouse and Holliday models are either both wrong or both right.