The total volume of centromeres per nucleus varies widely within Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring (7-fold) and between 11 higher plant species (24-fold). Such variation is closely correlated with nuclear DNA content, nuclear volume and, to a lesser extent, the total volume of nucleoli per nucleus. Centromere volume reflects minor intraspecific developmental fluctuations in nuclear size inde...

Studies in several organisms have shown that eukaryotic centromere regions contain proteins involved in chromosome inheritance functions such as centromere structure, heterochromatin assembly and sister chromatid cohesion. Mutation, inhibition, knockout and reciprocal epistasis experiments have revealed functions for many centromere region proteins and their order in the centromere assembly pat...

The centromere is the part of the chromosome that organizes the kinetochore, which mediates chromosome movement during mitosis and meiosis. A small fragment from chromosome 3, named Duplication 3a (Dp3a), was described from UV-irradiated materials by Stadler and Roman in the 1940s [Stadler LJ, Roman H (1948) Genetics 33(3):273-303]. The genetic behavior of Dp3a is reminiscent of a ring chromoso...

In meiosis, homologous chromosomes face the obstacle of finding, holding onto and segregating away from their partner chromosome. There is increasing evidence, in a diverse range of organisms, that centromere-centromere interactions that occur in late prophase are an important mechanism in ensuring segregation fidelity. Centromere pairing appears to initiate when homologous chromosomes synapse ...

A conditional centromere was constructed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by placing the centromere of chromosome III immediately downstream from the inducible GAL1 promoter from S. cerevisiae. By utilizing growth conditions that favor either transcriptional induction (galactose-carbon source) or repression (glucose-carbon source) from the GAL1 promoter, centromere function can be switched off or on...

The centromere of the maize B chromosome was used as a model to study the physical features of a functional centromere. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis was previously used to determine the organization of a repetitive sequence (referred to as the B-specific repeat) localized in the centromeric region of the maize B chromosome. The centromere is composed mostly of this repeat. In this report, a...

The centromere is essential for proper segregation and inheritance of genetic information. Centromeres are generally regulated to occur exactly once per chromosome; failure to do so leads to chromosome loss or damage and loss of linked genetic material. The mechanism for faithful regulation of centromere activity and number is unknown. The presence of ectopic centromeres (neocentromeres) has al...

The centromere is a functional chromosome domain that is essential for faithful chromosome segregation during cell division and that can be reliably identified by the presence of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CenH3. In monocentric chromosomes, the centromere is characterized by a single CenH3-containing region within a morphologically distinct primary constriction. This region usua...