Transcriptional control of meiotic recombination by DREAM complex components

Meiotic chromosome segregation and recombination, essential for sexual reproduction and evolution, require a specialized gene set. Despite its importance, the transcriptional regulators that directly orchestrate meiotic gene expression remain unidentified in plants. We identify the MuvB core components known from the DREAM complex as key transcriptional regulators of meiotic recombination in Arabidopsis . Loss of DREAM components TCX5/6 and ALY1/2 leads to impaired recombination and fertility defects. Meiocyte-specific transcriptome profiling and genome-wide binding analyses reveal that core recombination genes, including the crossover-promoting helicase MER3, are direct targets. Consistently, MER3 overexpression partially rescues recombination defects in DREAM-compromised plants. These findings establish the DREAM complex components as important regulators of the meiotic program in plants. Given that DREAM dysfunction causes reproductive defects in animals, this regulatory role may be conserved across multicellular eukaryotes.