Heterochromatin boundaries are hotspots for de novo kinetochore formation

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2011

Authors

Olszak, AM (Author) Other; van Essen, D (Author) Other; Pereira, AJ (Author) Other; Diehl, S (Author) Other; Manke, T (Author) Other; Helder Maiato (Author) FMUP; Saccani, S (Author) Other; Heun, P (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Nature Cell Biology

Vol. 13

Pages: 799-U166

ISSN: 1465-7392

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 99 Citations

Scopus - 96 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-Q7N

DOI: 10.1038/ncb2272

Abstract (EN): The centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENH3 (also known as CENP-A) is considered to be an epigenetic mark for establishment and propagation of centromere identity. Pulse induction of CENH3 (Drosophila CID) in Schneider S2 cells leads to its incorporation into non-centromeric regions and generates CID islands that resist clearing from chromosome arms for multiple cell generations. We demonstrate that CID is lands represent functional ectopic kinetochores, which are non-randomly distributed on the chromosome and show a preferential localization near telomeres and pericentric heterochromatin in transcriptionally silent, intergenic chromatin domains. Although overexpression of heterochromatin protein1 (HP1) or increasing histone acetylation interferes with CID island formation on a global scale,induction of a locally defined region of synthetic heterochromatin by targeting HP1-LacI fusions to stably integrated Lac operator arrays produces a proximal hotspot for CID deposition. These data indicate that the characteristics of regions bordering heterochromatin promote de novo kinetochore assembly and there by contribute to centromere identity.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 19