Epigenetic origin of evolutionary novel centromeres.
Most evolutionary new centromeres (ENC) are composed of large arrays of satellite DNA and surrounded by segmental duplications. However, the hypothesis is that ENCs are seeded in an anonymous sequence and only over time have acquired the complexity of "normal" centromeres. Up to now evidence to test this hypothesis was lacking. We recently discovered that the well-known polymorphism of orangutan chromosome 12 was due to the presence of an ENC. We sequenced the genome of an orangutan homozygous for the ENC, and we focused our analysis on the comparison of the ENC domain with respect to its wild type counterpart. No significant variations were found. This finding is the first clear evidence that ENC seedings are epigenetic in nature. The compaction of the ENC domain was found significantly higher than the corresponding WT region and, interestingly, the expression of the only gene embedded in the region was significantly repressed.
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Doron
D
Tolomeo
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Oronzo
O
Capozzi
Department of Biology, University of Florence, 50122 Florence, Italy.
Roscoe R
RR
Stanyon
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Nicoletta
N
Archidiacono
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Pietro
P
D'Addabbo
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Claudia R
CR
Catacchio
Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Stefania
S
Purgato
Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Giovanni
G
Perini
Institute of Human Genetics, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
Werner
W
Schempp
Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
John
J
Huddleston
Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Maika
M
Malig
Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Evan E
EE
Eichler
Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Mariano
M
Rocchi
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002503:Centromere / Q000235:genetics*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D057080:Pongo abelii
D004276:DNA, Satellite