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Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife

In most species, the centromere is comprised of repetitive DNA sequences, which rapidly evolve. Paradoxically, centromeres fulfill an essential function during mitosis, as they are the chromosomal sites wherein, through the kinetochore, the mitotic spindles bind. It is now generally accepted that ce...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Arunkumar, Ganesan, Melters, Daniël P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7463856/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32784923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes11080911
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author Arunkumar, Ganesan
Melters, Daniël P.
author_facet Arunkumar, Ganesan
Melters, Daniël P.
author_sort Arunkumar, Ganesan
collection PubMed
description In most species, the centromere is comprised of repetitive DNA sequences, which rapidly evolve. Paradoxically, centromeres fulfill an essential function during mitosis, as they are the chromosomal sites wherein, through the kinetochore, the mitotic spindles bind. It is now generally accepted that centromeres are transcribed, and that such transcription is associated with a broad range of functions. More than a decade of work on this topic has shown that centromeric transcripts are found across the eukaryotic tree and associate with heterochromatin formation, chromatin structure, kinetochore structure, centromeric protein loading, and inner centromere signaling. In this review, we discuss the conservation of small and long non-coding centromeric RNAs, their associations with various centromeric functions, and their potential roles in disease.
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spelling pubmed-74638562020-09-04 Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife Arunkumar, Ganesan Melters, Daniël P. Genes (Basel) Review In most species, the centromere is comprised of repetitive DNA sequences, which rapidly evolve. Paradoxically, centromeres fulfill an essential function during mitosis, as they are the chromosomal sites wherein, through the kinetochore, the mitotic spindles bind. It is now generally accepted that centromeres are transcribed, and that such transcription is associated with a broad range of functions. More than a decade of work on this topic has shown that centromeric transcripts are found across the eukaryotic tree and associate with heterochromatin formation, chromatin structure, kinetochore structure, centromeric protein loading, and inner centromere signaling. In this review, we discuss the conservation of small and long non-coding centromeric RNAs, their associations with various centromeric functions, and their potential roles in disease. MDPI 2020-08-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7463856/ /pubmed/32784923 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes11080911 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Arunkumar, Ganesan
Melters, Daniël P.
Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title_full Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title_fullStr Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title_full_unstemmed Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title_short Centromeric Transcription: A Conserved Swiss-Army Knife
title_sort centromeric transcription: a conserved swiss-army knife
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7463856/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32784923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes11080911
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