Common Ancestry of the CENP-A Chaperones Scm3 and HJURP

摘要

The centromere is a unique chromosomal locus that ensures accurate segregation of chromosomes during cell division. The centromere supports assembly of a multiprotein complex called the kinetochore, which attaches to spindle microtubules. The kinetochore has specialized nucleosomes in which histone H3 is replaced by the centromere-specific H3 variant CENP-A/cenH3 (reviewed in Allshire and Karpen, 2008). Two recent papers in Cell (Dunleavy et al., 2009; Foltz et al., 2009) have identified a new protein partner for soluble human CENPA called HJURP/hFLEG/FAKTS that promotes the incorporation of CENP-A at centromeres.