Interspecies conservation of organisation and function between nonhomologous regional centromeres

Abstract

Although the centromere-specific histone CENP-A usually assembles on specific genomic sequences, centromeric DNA is not conserved. Here the authors characterize the genome and centromeres of related fission yeasts and provide evidence that Schizosaccharomyces centromere DNA possesses intrinsic conserved properties that promote assembly of CENP-A chromatin.