title: Diversity and distribution of alpha satellite DNA in the genome of an Old World monkey: Cercopithecus solatus.
abstract: Alpha satellite is the major repeated DNA element of primate centromeres. Evolution of these tandemly repeated sequences has led to the existence of numerous families of monomers exhibiting specific organizational patterns. The limited amount of information available in non-human primates is a restriction to the understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of alpha satellite DNA.
  
  
  
  We carried out the targeted high-throughput sequencing of alpha satellite monomers and dimers from the Cercopithecus solatus genome, an Old World monkey from the Cercopithecini tribe. Computational approaches were used to infer the existence of sequence families and to study how these families are organized with respect to each other. While previous studies had suggested that alpha satellites in Old World monkeys were poorly diversified, our analysis provides evidence for the existence of at least four distinct families of sequences within the studied species and of higher order organizational patterns. Fluorescence in situ hybridization using oligonucleotide probes that are able to target each family in a specific way showed that the different families had distinct distributions on chromosomes and were not homogeneously distributed between chromosomes.
  
  
  
  Our new approach provides an unprecedented and comprehensive view of the diversity and organization of alpha satellites in a species outside the hominoid group. We consider these data with respect to previously known alpha satellite families and to potential mechanisms for satellite DNA evolution. Applying this approach to other species will open new perspectives regarding the integration of satellite DNA into comparative genomic and cytogenetic studies.
authors.affiliation: Département Régulations, Développement et Diversité Moléculaire, Structure et Instabilité des Génomes, INSERM U1154, CNRS UMR7196, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.|Département Systématique et Evolution, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, EPHE, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Lauriane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cacheux
authors.affiliation: Département Régulations, Développement et Diversité Moléculaire, Structure et Instabilité des Génomes, INSERM U1154, CNRS UMR7196, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ponger
authors.affiliation: Département Systématique et Evolution, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, EPHE, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Michèle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerbault-Seureau
authors.affiliation: Département Systématique et Evolution, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, EPHE, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.|Université Versailles St-Quentin, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France.
authors.forename: Florence Anne
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.affiliation: Département Régulations, Développement et Diversité Moléculaire, Structure et Instabilité des Génomes, INSERM U1154, CNRS UMR7196, Sorbonne Universités, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. escude@mnhn.fr.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Escudé
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002503:Centromere; D002521:Cercopithecus / Q000235:genetics*; D033481:Chromosomes, Mammalian; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D004276:DNA, Satellite; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016678:Genome; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D004276:DNA, Satellite
keywords: Alpha satellite DNA; Centromere genomics; Cercopithecus solatus; High-throughput sequencing