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Plant genetics

Creating synthetic maize centromeres

Nature Plants volume 9, pages 379–380 (2023)Cite this article

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A tethering approach based on a LexA–CENH3 fusion protein in maize activates functional centromeres at synthetic LexO repeat arrays. The synthetic centromeres cause fragmentation of the resulting dicentric chromosomes, resulting in stably inherited and self-sustaining neochromosomes.

A new way to engineer plant centromeres and chromosomes in maize is reported in this issue1. Eukaryotic chromosomes segregate during cell division by attaching to spindle microtubules using centromeres2. Centromere DNA sequences are responsible for loading CENH3 (also known as CENPA), which is required to assemble a large protein complex, called the kinetochore, that is responsible for spindle microtubule interactions2. In this sense, centromeres can be said to have an epigenetic identity — as they are specified by a chromatin mark3.

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Fig. 1: Creating synthetic neochromosomes in maize.

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  1. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Ian R. Henderson

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  1. Ian R. Henderson
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Correspondence to Ian R. Henderson.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Henderson, I.R. Creating synthetic maize centromeres. Nat. Plants 9, 379–380 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01366-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01366-4

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