During meiotic recombination, Spo11 protein is used in complex along with Mre 11 and Rad50. When the Spo11 protein makes double-strand breaks in one of the homologous chromosomes, the meiotic recombination is initialized. It is highly conserved in eukaryotes and this mechanism of initiating recombination is also employed widely.
But in bacterial species, there is no reciprocal meiotic recombination. Hence, this function also is not conserved. When both the strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) break, genetic exchange between two DNA molecules starts by homologous recombination. This recombination is started by an endonuclease enzyme.
In meiosis, the enzyme is SPO11. It is related to DNA topoisomerases. Topoisomerases break one or both strands of DNA. Then they pass the unbroken DNA strand or strands through the break and thus repair the break. The broken ends of DNA are covalently linked to topoisomerase. During meiosis SPO11 is attached to the DNA when it forms double-strand breaks.