The kinetochore, which forms on a specific chromosomal locus called the centromere, mediates interactions between the chromosome and the spindle during mitosis and meiosis. Abnormal chromosome rearrangements and/or neocentromere formation can cause the presence of multiple centromeres on a single chromosome, which results in chromosome breakage or cell cycle arrest. Analyses of artificial dicentric chromosomes suggested that the activity of the centromere is regulated epigenetically; on some stably maintained dicentric chromosomes, one of the centromeres no longer functions as a platform for kinetochore formation, although the DNA sequence remains intact. Such epigenetic centromere inactivation occurs in cells of various eukaryotes harbouring ‘regional centromeres’, such as those of maize, fission yeast and humans, suggesting that the position of the active centromere is determined by epigenetic markers on a chromosome rather than the nucleotide sequence. Our recent findings in fission yeast revealed that epigenetic centromere inactivation consists of two steps: disassembly of the kinetochore initiates inactivation and subsequent heterochromatinization prevents revival of the inactivated centromere. Kinetochore disassembly followed by heterochromatinization is also observed in normal senescent human cells. Thus epigenetic centromere inactivation may not only stabilize abnormally generated dicentric chromosomes, but also be part of an intrinsic mechanism regulating cell proliferation.
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Conference Article|
November 20 2013
Switching the centromeres on and off: epigenetic chromatin alterations provide plasticity in centromere activity stabilizing aberrant dicentric chromosomes Available to Purchase
Hiroshi Sato;
Hiroshi Sato
*Division of Cell Biology, Institute of Life Science, Kurume University, Hyakunen-kohen 1–1, Kurume, Fukuoka 839–0864, Japan
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Shigeaki Saitoh
Shigeaki Saitoh
1
*Division of Cell Biology, Institute of Life Science, Kurume University, Hyakunen-kohen 1–1, Kurume, Fukuoka 839–0864, Japan
1To whom correspondence should be addressed (email[email protected]).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
July 04 2013
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© The Authors Journal compilation © 2013 Biochemical Society
2013
Biochem Soc Trans (2013) 41 (6): 1648–1653.
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Received:
July 04 2013
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Hiroshi Sato, Shigeaki Saitoh; Switching the centromeres on and off: epigenetic chromatin alterations provide plasticity in centromere activity stabilizing aberrant dicentric chromosomes. Biochem Soc Trans 1 December 2013; 41 (6): 1648–1653. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20130136
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