Meiotic recombination and genome evolution in plants

•Providing new insight on meiotic recombination from whole genome and epigenome analysis.•Crossovers are associated with DNA motifs together with an open chromatin signature.•Meiotic recombination reshuffles DNA sequences and causes biased GC-conversion.•In Arabidopsis crossovers occur preferentially in promoter regions.•High recombination rates might be under positive selection for disease resistance genes. Homologous recombination affects genome evolution through crossover, gene conversion and point mutations. Whole genome sequencing together with a detailed epigenome analysis have shed new light on our understanding of how meiotic recombination shapes plant genes and genome structure. Crossover events are associated with DNA sequence motifs, together with an open chromatin signature (hypomethylated CpGs, low nucleosome occupancy or specific histone modifications). The crossover landscape may differ between male and female meiocytes and between species. At the gene level, crossovers occur preferentially in promoter regions in Arabidopsis. In recent years, there is rising support suggesting that biased mismatch repair during meiotic recombination may increase GC content genome-wide and may be responsible for the GC content gradient found in many plant genes.