Post-translational Modifications of Centromeric Chromatin

Abstract

Regulation of chromatin structures is important for the control of DNA processes such as gene expression, and misregulation of chromatin is implicated in diverse diseases. Covalent post-translational modifications of histones are a prominent way to regulate chromatin structure and different chromatin regions bear their specific signature of histone modifications. The composition of centromeric chromatin is significantly different from other chromatin structures and mainly defined by the presence of the histone H3-variant CENP-A. Here we summarize the composition of centromeric chromatin and what we know about its differential regulation by post-translational modifications.

Posttranslational modifications of CENP-A: marks of distinction

“…Assembling CENP-A containing chromatin at non-centromeric loci is sufficient to establish the centromere and assembles a kinetochore capable of microtubule attachments, demonstrating the primary role of CENP-A nucleosomes in forming the centromere (Barnhart et al 2011; Bergmann et al 2011; Guse et al 2011; Mendiburo et al 2011). Notably, CENP-A-containing nucleosomes are not arranged in a continuous fashion, but are instead interspersed with H3-containing nucleosome that contain a distinctive set of posttranslational modifications important for centromere function (Blower et al 2002; Fukagawa 2017; Garcia Del Arco and Erhardt 2017). …”