CENP-A confers a reduction in height on octameric nucleosomes
Allshire lab paper featured in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.
Authors
Matthew D D Miell, Colin J Fuller, Annika Guse, Helena M Barysz, Andrew Downes, Tom Owen-Hughes, Juri Rappsilber, Aaron F Straight & Robin C Allshire
Summary
Nucleosomes with histone H3 replaced by CENP-A direct kinetochore assembly. CENP-A nucleosomes from human and Drosophila have been reported to have reduced heights as compared to canonical octameric H3 nucleosomes, thus suggesting a unique tetrameric hemisomal composition. We demonstrate that octameric CENP-A nucleosomes assembled in vitro exhibit reduced heights, indicating that they are physically distinct from H3 nucleosomes and negating the need to invoke the presence of hemisomes.