title: A specialized nucleosome has a "point" to make.
abstract: Three recent papers, including Mizuguchi et al. (2007) in this issue, show that the nonhistone protein Scm3 is required for the recruitment of the histone H3 variant Cse4 to centromeres in budding yeast. Scm3 forms a chromatin component with Cse4:histone H4 tetramers that appear to lack H2A/H2B histones. These studies provide key insights into the pathway that recruits Cse4 to centromeres and have important implications for other functions of chromatin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genome and Computational Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MS 84-171, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Weiguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Barbara G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Mellone
authors.forename: Gary H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Karpen
mesh_terms: D002503:Centromere / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D004260:DNA Repair; D004261:DNA Replication; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009707:Nucleosomes / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C092746:CSE4 protein, S cerevisiae; D002843:Chromatin; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D006657:Histones; D009707:Nucleosomes; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; C521684:Scm3 protein, S cerevisiae