Centromeres put epigenetics in the driver's seat

被引:79
作者
Dawe, R. Kelly [1 ]
Henikoff, Steven
机构
[1] Univ Georgia, Dept Plant Biol, Athens, GA 30602 USA
[2] Univ Georgia, Dept Genet, Athens, GA 30602 USA
[3] Howard Hughes Med Inst, Fred Hutchinson Canc Res Ctr, Seattle, WA 98109 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1016/j.tibs.2006.10.004
中图分类号
Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];
学科分类号
071010 ; 081704 ;
摘要
A defining feature of chromosomes is the centromere, the site for spindle attachment at mitosis and meiosis. Intriguingly, centromeres of plants and animals are maintained by both sequence-specific and sequence-independent (epigenetic) processes. Epigenetic inheritance might enable kinetochores (the structures that attach centromeres to spindles) to maintain an optimal size. However, centromeres are susceptible to the evolution of 'selfish' DNA repeats that bind to kinetochore proteins. We argue that such sequence-specific interactions are evolutionarily unstable because they enable repeat arrays to influence kinetochore size. Changes in kinetochore size could affect the interaction of kinetochores with the spindle and, in principle, skew Mendelian segregation. We propose that key kinetochore proteins have adapted to disrupt such sequence-specific interactions and restore epigenetic inheritance.
引用
收藏
页码:662 / 669
页数:8
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