Required during meiosis for separation of sister chromatids and homologous chromosomes. Proteolytic cleavage of REC8 on chromosome arms by separin during anaphase I allows for homologous chromosome separation in meiosis I and cleavage of REC8 on centromeres during anaphase II allows for sister chromatid separation in meiosis II. {ECO:0000269|PubMed:12034751; ECO:0000269|PubMed:15515002; ECO:0000269|PubMed:15935783; ECO:0000269|PubMed:16855401}.