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Genomics

Journey to the Centre of the X

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 2, page 914 (2001)Cite this article

Although centromeres in higher primates are made up of megabase-long tandem arrays of 171-bp repeats — α-satellite DNA — the repeat array has a higher-level organization, with some sequence variation between the repeats. This variation was elegantly exploited by Schueler et al. to define STS markers within the array itself. Along with physical mapping techniques, these markers were used to construct a BAC contig that extended from the unique region on the short arm of the X that is very close to the centromere into the core of the centromeric repeats. DNA sequence was then generated from various parts of the contig.

There is a sharp transition from the unique region into the region containing α-satellite DNA. However, between this transition and the core of the centromere — where the α-satellite DNA is most homogeneous — there are stretches of α-satellite with distinct sequence characteristics. The closer they are to the core, the more similar these stretches are to the core α-satellite DNA. This observation fits very well with the idea that unequal crossing over is the mechanism that maintains the overall integrity of the centromere: peripheral regions of the repeat array are predicted to be less strongly homogenized than more central regions.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Schueler, M. G. et al. Genomic and genetic definition of a functional human centromere. Science 294, 109–115 (2001)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Sullivan, B. A. et al. Determining centromere identity: cyclical stories and forking paths. Nature Rev. Genet. 2, 584–596 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Mark Patterson
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Patterson, M. Journey to the Centre of the X. Nat Rev Genet 2, 914 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35103500

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