title: Recent advances in plant centromere biology.
abstract: The centromere, which is one of the essential parts of a chromosome, controls kinetochore formation and chromosome segregation during mitosis and meiosis. While centromere function is conserved in eukaryotes, the centromeric DNA sequences evolve rapidly and have few similarities among species. The histone H3 variant CENH3 (CENP-A in human), which mostly exists in centromeric nucleosomes, is a universal active centromere mark in eukaryotes and plays an essential role in centromere identity determination. The relationship between centromeric DNA sequences and centromere identity determination is one of the intriguing questions in studying centromere formation. Due to the discoveries in the past decades, including "neocentromeres" and "centromere inactivation", it is now believed that the centromere identity is determined by epigenetic mechanisms. This review will present recent progress in plant centromere biology.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors: Chao
authors: C
authors: Feng
authors: YaLin
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: HanDong
authors: H
authors: Su
authors: HeFei
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Birchler
authors: FangPu
authors: F
authors: Han
mesh_terms: D002503:Centromere; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D006657:Histones