Centromeres articles from across Nature Portfolio

Fibrosis of the skin plays an important role in scleroderma. Here the authors demonstrate genetic and epigenetic abnormalities at the centromere that affect the replication of the chromosomes, resulting in activation of pathways involved in inflammation and fibrosis

Which combination of current genome sequencing and assembly approaches results in high-quality, complete diploid genome assemblies is determined.

In this study, using a human neocentromere as a model, the authors show that centromeres have a special chromatin structure. Centromere repositioning triggers transcriptional activation, epigenetic remodelling and chromatin fibre decompaction.

The kinetochore protein Mis6 (CENP-I) plays an important role in CENP-A maintenance during mitosis in fission yeast and blocks the indiscriminate transcription of non-coding RNAs at the core centromere to retain CENP-A during mitosis.

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.