Functional monocentricity with holocentric characteristics and chromosome-specific centromeres in a stick insect.

ABSTRACT: Centromeres are essential for chromosome segregation in eukaryotes, yet their specification is unexpectedly diverse among species and can involve major transitions such as those from localized to chromosome-wide centromeres between monocentric and holocentric species. How this diversity evolves remains elusive. We discovered within-cell variation in the recruitment of the major centromere protein CenH3, reminiscent of variation typically observed among species. While CenH3-containing nucleosomes are distributed in a monocentric fashion on autosomes and bind tandem repeat sequences specific to individual or groups of chromosomes, they show a longitudinal distribution and broad intergenic binding on the X chromosome, which partially recapitulates phenotypes known from holocentric species. De

SUBMITTER: Toubiana W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11691646 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature