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________________________________________________________________________________________________________ No Heterochromatin - Lose Chromosomes Review - Epigenetic Regulation of Centromere Chromatin: Old Dogs, New Tricks? The histone H3 variant CENP-A is the key determinant of centromere identity and kinetochore assembly. Recent studies have identified many factors that affect CENP-A localization, but their precise roles are unknown. In this collaborative review with Gary Karpen we build on these advances and on new information about the timing of CENP-A assembly during the cell cycle to propose new models for how centromeric chromatin is established and propagated. See Allshire and Karpen (2008) Nature Reviews Genetics 9: 923. Common Ancestry of CENP-A Chaperones Scm3 and HJURP Analyses with Chris Ponting's lab of Scm3 and HJURP reconcile previous observations by demonstrating that fungal Scm3 proteins are distant counterparts of human HJURP. Thus, investigation of Scm3 and associated proteins is likely to be directly relevant to understanding the mechanism of HJURP-mediated CENP-A chromatin assembly at human centromeres. For details see Sanchez-Pulido et al (2009) Cell 137:1173  Synthetic Heterochromatin Bypass RNAi and Centromeric Repeats to Establish Functional Centromeres Artificially tethering the Clr4 H3 lysine 9 methyltransferase to Gal4 binding sites rewires centromeres so that outer repeats, their non-coding RNAs and RNAi rendered redundant in forming functional centromeres. For details see Kagansky et al (2009) Science 324: 1716-19 Fission Yeast Scm3: A CENP-A Receptor Required for Integrity of Subkinetochore Chromatin Localisation of S. pombe CENP-ACnp1 at centromere requires functional Scm3Sim1. Scm3 is released from centromeres in early mitosis, reassociating in late anaphase. Scm3 binds CENP-A and Mis18 in vitro. For details see Pidoux, Choi et al (2009) Mol. Cell 33:299-311 Splicing factors facilitate RNAi-directed silencing Northern analyses reveals that the amount of siRNA derived from centromeric repeat non-coding transcripts is reduced in specific splicing mutants. For details see Bayne et al (2008) Science 322:602-606 _______________________________________________________________________________ • • Interested in joining us? • • Postdoc and Ph.D. student applications always considered Enquires to: robin.allshire@ed.ac.uk • • |
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