Falk Samantha J, Black Ben E
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Graduate Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013 Mar-Apr;1819(3-4):313-21.
The centromere is the locus that directs chromosomal inheritance at cell division. While centromeres in diverse eukaryotes are commonly found at sites of repetitive DNA, their location is epigenetically specified. The histone H3 variant CENP-A is the prime candidate for epigenetically marking the centromere, and recent work has uncovered several additional proteins that play key roles in centromere assembly and maintenance. We describe advances in the identification and characterization of proteins that form the centromere, and focus on recent findings that have advanced our understanding of the assembly of functional centromeric chromatin. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Histone chaperones and chromatin assembly.
着丝粒是在细胞分裂时指导染色体遗传的位点。虽然在多种真核生物中着丝粒通常位于重复DNA的位点，但它们的位置是由表观遗传决定的。组蛋白H3变体CENP - A是在表观遗传上标记着丝粒的主要候选物，并且最近的研究发现了几种在着丝粒组装和维持中起关键作用的其他蛋白质。我们描述了构成着丝粒的蛋白质在鉴定和表征方面的进展，并着重于最近的研究结果，这些结果加深了我们对功能性着丝粒染色质组装的理解。本文是名为“组蛋白伴侣与染色质组装”的特刊的一部分。
