Recombination hotspot

Recombination hotspots are regions in a genome that exhibit elevated rates of recombination relative to a neutral expectation. The recombination rate within hotspots can be hundreds of times that of the surrounding region. Recombination hotspots result from higher DNA break formation in these regions, and apply to both mitotic and meiotic cells. In practice, this appellation traditionally refers to recombination events resulting from the uneven distribution of programmed meiotic double-strand breaks.