Higher inter-cellular variation in genome-wide recombination rate in female mice

Meiotic recombination affects fertility, shuffles genomes, and modulates the effectiveness of natural selection. Despite conservation of the recombination pathway, the rate of recombination varies among individuals and along chromosomes. Recombination rate also differs among cells from the same organism, but this form of variation has received less attention. To identify patterns that characterize inter-cellular variation in the genome-wide recombination rate, we counted foci of the MLH1 recombination-associated protein in oocytes and spermatocytes from a panel of wild-derived inbred strains of house mice. Females show higher inter-cellular variation in MLH1 focus count than males from the same inbred strains. This pattern is consistent across strains from multiple subspecies, including two strains in which the average MLH1 focus count is higher in males. The sex difference in genome-wide recombination rate we report suggests that selection targeting recombination rate will be more efficient in males than in females.