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Sex differences in recombination

One of the stronger empirical generalizations to emerge from the study of genetic systems is that achiasmate meiosis, which has evolved 25–30 times, is always restricted to the heterogametic sex in dioecious species, usually the male. Here we collate data on quantitative sex differences in chiasma frequency from 54 species (4 hermaphroditic flatworms, 18 dioecious insects and vertebrates and 32 hermaphroditic plants) to test whether similar trends hold. Though significant sex differences have been observed within many species, only the Liliaceae show a significant sexual dimorphism in chiasma frequency across species, with more crossing over in embryo mother cells than in pollen mother cells; chiasma frequencies are unrelated to sex and gamety in all other higher taxa studied. Further, the magnitude of sexual dimorphism, independent of sign, does not differ among the three main ecological groups (dioecious animals, plants, and hermaphroditic animals), contrary to what would be expected if it reflected sex‐specific selection on recombination. These results indicate that the strong trends for achiasmate meiosis do not apply to quantitative sex differences in recombination, and contradict theories of sex‐specific costs and benefits. An alternative hypothesis suggests that sex differences may be more‐or‐less neutral, selection determining only the mean rate of recombination. While male and female chiasma frequencies are more similar than would be expected under complete neutrality, a less absolute form of the hypothesis is more difficult to falsify. In female mice the sex bivalent has more chiasmata for its length than the autosomes, perhaps compensating for the absence of recombination in males. Finally, we observe that chiasma frequencies in males and females are positively correlated across species, validating the use of only one sex in comparative studies of recombination.