The fact that Spo11 cleavage involves a covalent protein–DNA complex has two consequences: First, the 5’ ends of the DNA at the site of Spo11 cleavage are covalently bound to the enzyme.It is these Spo11-linked 5’ DNA ends that are the initial sites of DNA processing to create thessDNA tails required for assembly of RecA-like proteins and initiation of DNA strand invasion (see below).