zygotene

The next stage of prophase I in meiosis is the zygotene stage.

Previous to the pachytene stage, during leptonema, the lateral elements begin to form and they initiate and complete their pairing during the zygotene stage.

During zygotene phase of prophase I, the chromomeres of homologs align with each other to form homologous rough pairing (homology searching).

The mouse oocyte in the dictyate (prolonged diplotene) stage actively repairs DNA damage, whereas DNA repair is not detectable in the pre-dictyate (leptotene, zygotene and pachytene) stages of meiosis.

In the human female, meiosis commences towards the end of the first trimester of fetal development and, with increasing gestational age, more and more cells enter the prophase stages of leptotene, zygotene and pachytene.