Centromeres articles within Nature Cell Biology

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  • Article |

    Das et al. show that chromatin incorporation of histone H3 variant CENP-A at centromeres in early mouse embryos depends on the maternally provided Cenpa mRNA pool and on repetitive centromere satellite DNA, rather than pre-existing CENP-A nucleosomes.

    • Arunika Das
    • , Aiko Iwata-Otsubo
    •  & Michael A. Lampson

  • News & Views |

    Centromere identity must be maintained through multiple generations. A new study reveals a Constitutive Centromere-Associated Network (CCAN)-dependent retention of CENP-A, a key epigenetic mark for centromeres, in centromeres during DNA replication and a replication-dependent error correction to eliminate ectopic CENP-A in chromosome arms.

    • Masatoshi Hara
    •  & Tatsuo Fukagawa

  • News & Views |

    Micronucleation of missegregated chromatin can lead to substantial chromosome rearrangements via chromothripsis. However, the molecular details of micronucleus-based chromothripsis are still unclear. Now, an elegant system that specifically induces missegregation of the Y chromosome provides insight into this process, including a role for non-homologous end joining.

    • Emily M. Hatch

  • News & Views |

    Faithful genome segregation depends on the functions of the eukaryotic centromere, which is characterized by the histone variant CENP-A. Gene replacement in human cells and fission yeast has now been used to show how CENP-A biochemically encodes centromere identity, as well as reveal an unexpected role for CENP-B in centromere function.

    • Bradley T. French
    •  & Aaron F. Straight

  • Article |

    The centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A is sufficient for centromere specification in many species. Cleveland and colleagues have used an elegant gene targeting strategy to define a two-step mechanism for how CENP-A acts in centromere targeting and kinetochore assembly and function.

    • Daniele Fachinetti
    • , H. Diego Folco
    •  & Don W. Cleveland

  • News & Views |

    The diverse nature of eukaryotic centromere structure has led to a prevailing view that the kinetochore–chromatin interface is fundamentally different in distinct species. Two studies now challenge this dogma with the identification of budding yeast homologues of the vertebrate centromere DNA-binding proteins CENP-T and CENP-W.

    • Karen E. Gascoigne
    •  & Iain M. Cheeseman

  • Article |

    Multi-protein kinetochore complexes bind to the centromeric region of chromosomes to ensure accurate spindle attachment and chromosome segregation, although centromere organization differs widely between species. Westermann and colleagues now identify the budding yeast protein Cnn1 as the orthologue of mammalian CENP-T. They show that it binds to the Ndc80 kinetochore complex and functions in chromosome segregation, illustrating a conserved role for this protein.

    • Alexander Schleiffer
    • , Michael Maier
    •  & Stefan Westermann

  • News & Views |

    The histone H3 variant CENP-A defines centromeric chromatin, but it has been unclear how CENP-A is stably maintained at centromeres. It has now been shown that the CENP-A licensing factor HsKNL2 and the small GTPases activating protein MgcRacGAP cooperate to promote the stability of newly loaded CENP-A at centromeres.

    • Lisa Prendergast
    •  & Kevin F. Sullivan

  • Perspective |

    It has been proposed that the spindle assembly checkpoint detects both unattached kinetochores and lack of tension between sister kinetochores when sister chromatids are not attached to opposite spindle poles. However, here we argue that there is only one signal — whether kinetochores are attached to microtubules or not — and this has implications for our understanding of both chromosome segregation and the control of genomic stability.

    • Alexey Khodjakov
    •  & Jonathon Pines

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