title: PREditOR: a synthetic biology approach to removing heterochromatin from cells.
abstract: It is widely accepted that heterochromatin is necessary to maintain genomic stability. However, direct experimental evidence supporting this is slim. Previous studies using either enzyme inhibitors, gene knockout or knockdown studies all are subject to the caveat that drugs may have off-target effects and enzymes that modify chromatin proteins to support heterochromatin formation may also have numerous other cellular targets as well. Here, we describe PREditOR (protein reading and editing of residues), a synthetic biology approach that allows us to directly remove heterochromatin from cells without either drugs or global interference with gene function. We find that removal of heterochromatin perturbs mitotic progression and causes a dramatic increase in chromosome segregation defects, possibly as a result of interfering with the normal centromeric localization of the chromosomal passenger complex.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF, UK. oscar.molina@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7585-4519
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF, UK.
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carmena
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF, UK.
authors.forename: Isabella E
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Maudlin
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3BF, UK. bill.earnshaw@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Earnshaw
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002503:Centromere / Q000378:metabolism; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006570:Heterochromatin
keywords: Centromeres; Chromosome segregation; Heterochromatin; Mitosis