The structure and evolution of centromeric transition regions within the human genome.
An understanding of how centromeric transition regions are organized is a critical aspect of chromosome structure and function; however, the sequence context of these regions has been difficult to resolve on the basis of the draft genome sequence. We present a detailed analysis of the structure and assembly of all human pericentromeric regions (5 megabases). Most chromosome arms (35 out of 43) show a gradient of dwindling transcriptional diversity accompanied by an increasing number of interchromosomal duplications in proximity to the centromere. At least 30% of the centromeric transition region structure originates from euchromatic gene-containing segments of DNA that were duplicatively transposed towards pericentromeric regions at a rate of six-seven events per million years during primate evolution. This process has led to the formation of a minimum of 28 new transcripts by exon exaptation and exon shuffling, many of which are primarily expressed in the testis. The distribution of these duplicated segments is nonrandom among pericentromeric regions, suggesting that some regions have served as preferential acceptors of euchromatic DNA.
She
Xinwei
X
Department of Genetics, Center for Computational Genomics and the Center for Human Genetics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
Horvath
Julie E
JE
Jiang
Zhaoshi
Z
Liu
Ge
G
Furey
Terrence S
TS
Christ
Laurie
L
Clark
Royden
R
Graves
Tina
T
Gulden
Cassy L
CL
Alkan
Can
C
Bailey
Jeff A
JA
Sahinalp
Cenk
C
Rocchi
Mariano
M
Haussler
David
D
Wilson
Richard K
RK
Miller
Webb
W
Schwartz
Stuart
S
Eichler
Evan E
EE
D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D002503:Centromere / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D022041:Euchromatin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020440:Gene Duplication; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000235:genetics
D022041:Euchromatin; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004247:DNA