The evolutionary success of eukaryotic organisms crucially depends on the capacity to produce genetic diversity through reciprocal exchanges of each chromosome pair, or crossovers (COs), during meiosis. It has been recognized that COs arise more evenly across a given chromosome than at random. This phenomenon, termed CO interference, occurs pervasively in eukaryotes and may confer a selective advantage. We describe here a multipoint linkage analysis procedure for segregating families to quantify the strength of CO interference over the genome, and extend this procedure to illustrate the landscape of CO interference in natural populations. We further discuss the crucial role of CO interference in amplifying and maintaining genetic diversity through sex-, stress-, and age-induced differentiation.

真核生物在进化上的成功关键取决于减数分裂过程中通过每个染色体对的相互交换或交叉（CO）相互交换而产生遗传多样性的能力。已经认识到，在给定的染色体上，CO的出现比随机出现的更为均匀。这种现象称为CO干扰，广泛存在于真核生物中，并可能具有选择性优势。我们在这里描述了一个多点连锁分析程序，用于隔离各族群以量化CO干扰在基因组上的强度，并扩展了该程序以说明自然种群中CO干扰的态势。我们进一步讨论了CO干扰在通过性别，压力和年龄诱导的分化来扩大和维持遗传多样性中的关键作用。