Transcription within a functional human centromere

  • Mol Cell. 2003 Aug;12(2):509-16. doi: 10.1016/s1097-2765(03)00279-x.
Richard Saffery  1 ,  Huseyin Sumer ,  Sara Hassan ,  Lee H Wong ,  Jeffrey M Craig ,  Kazuo Todokoro ,  Melissa Anderson ,  Angela Stafford ,  K H Andy Choo
Affiliations
  • 1. The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Melbourne, 3052, Australia.
PMID: 14536089 DOI: 10.1016/s1097-2765(03)00279-x
Abstract

Recent data in yeast and Drosophila suggest a domain-like centromere structure with a modified chromatin core and flanking regions of heterochromatin. We have analyzed a functional human centromere and defined a region of increased chromosome scaffold/matrix attachment that overlaps three Other distinct and nonoverlapping domains for constitutive centromere proteins CENP-A and CENP-H, and heterochromatin protein HP1. Transcriptional competency is intact throughout the S/MAR-enriched region and within the CENP-A- and CENP-H-associated chromatin. These results provide insights into the relationship between centromeric chromatin and transcriptional competency in vivo, highlighting the permissibility of transcription within the constitutively modified, nonheterochromatic chromatin of a functional eukaryotic centromere.