In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae at least 10 genes are required to begin meiotic recombination. A new early recombination gene REC103 is described in this paper. It was initially defined by the rec103-1 mutation found in a selection for mutations overcoming the spore inviability of a rad52 spo13 haploid strain. Mutations in REC103 also rescue rad52 in spo13 diploids. rec103 spo13 strains produce viable spores; these spores show no evidence of meiotic recombination. rec103 SPO13 diploids produce no viable spores, consistent with loss of recombination. Mutations in REC103 do not affect mitotic recombination, growth, or repair. These phenotypes are identical to those conferred by mutations in several other early meiotic recombination genes (e.g., REC102, REC104, REC114, ME14, MER2, and SPO11). REC103 maps to chromosome VII between ADE5 and RAD54. Cloning and sequencing of REC103 reveals that REC103 is identical to SK18, a gene that depresses the expression of yeast double-stranded ("killer") (ds)RNA viruses. REC103/SK18 is transcribed in mitotic cells and is induced approximately 15-fold in meiosis. REC103 has 26% amino acid identity to the Schizasaccharomyces pombe rec14+ gene; mutations in both genes confer similar meiotic phenotypes, suggesting that they may play similar roles in meiotic recombination.