ZmMTOPVIB Enables DNA Double-Strand Break Formation and Bipolar Spindle Assembly during Maize Meiosis

The meiotic TopoVI B subunit (MTopVIB) plays an essential role in double-strand break formation in mouse ( Mus musculus ), Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ), and rice ( Oryza sativa ), and recent work reveals that rice MTopVIB also plays an unexpected role in meiotic bipolar spindle assembly, highlighting multiple functions of MTopVIB during rice meiosis. In this work, we characterized the meiotic TopVIB in maize ( Zea mays ; ZmMTOPVIB ). The ZmmtopVIB mutant plants exhibited normal vegetative growth but male and female sterility. Meiotic double-strand break formation was abolished in mutant meiocytes. Despite normal assembly of axial elements, mutants showed severely affected synapsis and disrupted homologous pairing. Importantly, we showed that bipolar spindle assembly was also affected in ZmmtopVIB , resulting in triad and polyad formation. Overall, our results demonstrate that ZmMTOPVIB plays critical roles in double-strand break formation and homologous recombination. In addition, our results suggest that the function of MTOPVIB in bipolar spindle assembly is likely conserved across different monocots.