Centromeric Chromatin Transition at Mitotic Onset/ Curr. Biol., July 25, 2019 (Vol. 29, Issue 16)

Centromeres are called to action at cell division, serving as the site on each chromosome where kinetochores are built to attach to the microtubule-based spindle and ultimately mediate proper segregation to the daughter cells. This video highlights new insight from cellular and atomic-level structural studies of a transition in centromeric chromatin at this critical portion of the cell cycle, reported by Allu et al., and integrates it with current models of higher-order mitotic chromosome structure and of kinetochore formation itself. The global asymmetry of centromeric chromatin—where one surface is packed against a condensed mitotic chromosome and the other faces the cytoplasm for recruiting kinetochore components—is matched by a local asymmetry in the fundamental repeating unit of centromeric chromatin, the core centromeric nucleosome complex.

Check out the paper at http://www.cell.com/current-biology/f....

P.K. Allu, J.M. Dawicki-McKenna, T. Van Eeuwen, M. Slavin, M. Braitbard, C. Xu, N. Kalisman, K. Murakami, and B.E. Black (2019). Structure of the Human Core Centromeric Nucleosome Complex. Curr. Biol. 29.

And read more great research at http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home.

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