Download MendeleyDecoding the centromeric nucleosome through CENP-N.
Pentakota, S., Zhou, K., Smith, C., Maffini, S., Petrovic, A., Morgan, G.P., Weir, J.R., Vetter, I.R., Musacchio, A., Luger, K.(2017) Elife 6
- PubMed: 29280735
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.33442
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:
6C0W, 6EQT - PubMed Abstract:
Centromere protein (CENP) A, a histone H3 variant, is a key epigenetic determinant of chromosome domains known as centromeres. Centromeres nucleate kinetochores, multi-subunit complexes that capture spindle microtubules to promote chromosome segregation during mitosis. Two kinetochore proteins, CENP-C and CENP-N, recognize CENP-A in the context of a rare CENP-A nucleosome. Here, we reveal the structural basis for the exquisite selectivity of CENP-N for centromeres. CENP-N uses charge and space complementarity to decode the L1 loop that is unique to CENP-A. It also engages in extensive interactions with a 15-base pair segment of the distorted nucleosomal DNA double helix, in a position predicted to exclude chromatin remodelling enzymes. Besides CENP-A, stable centromere recruitment of CENP-N requires a coincident interaction with a newly identified binding motif on nucleosome-bound CENP-C. Collectively, our studies clarify how CENP-N and CENP-C decode and stabilize the non-canonical CENP-A nucleosome to enforce epigenetic centromere specification and kinetochore assembly.
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Mechanistic Cell Biology, Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany.
